Senior Reporter, HuffPost
Former president Donald Trump has a lot of thoughts about Taylor Swift, including whether she’s just pretending to be a liberal.
According to an upcoming book, “Apprentice in Wonderland: How Donald Trump and Mark Burnett Took America Through the Looking Glass,” Trump thinks the singer is “beautiful,” but has problems with her politics.
“I think she’s beautiful — very beautiful! I find her very beautiful,” Trump told author Ramin Setoodeh in an excerpt shared by Variety. ”I think she’s liberal. She probably doesn’t like Trump. I hear she’s very talented. I think she’s very beautiful, actually — unusually beautiful!”
But Trump’s praise of Swift stops at her looks. He told Setoodeh, who is the co-editor-in-chief of Variety, that he “[doesn’t] know [her music] well,” and also expressed dismay at her politics.
Swift famously called out Trump in 2020 for “stoking the fires of white supremacy and racism” during his entire presidency, and also endorsed Joe Biden.
“She is liberal, or is that just an act?” Trump asked during his interview with Setoodeh. “She’s legitimately liberal? It’s not an act? It surprises me that a country star can be successful being liberal.” While Swift got her start in country music, she fully crossed over into mainstream pop in 2014 with her album “1989.” Plus, several country artists have spoken out against Trump over the years, including Maren Morris, Willie Nelson, The Chicks, Kacey Musgraves and Jason Isbell.
Trump’s tone in the interview suggests he’s familiar with Swift, but not a full-blown Swiftie.
However, The Daily Beast noted that Trump has been thirstily seeking attention from Swift since at least 12 years ago. He even congratulated her when she broke up with Conor Kennedy.
And while Trump claims he’s not familiar with Swift’s music, that’s not the case with other members of his family, as this Instagram video taken by his wife Melania that shows him and son Barron listening to “Blank Space” amply demonstrates.
A post shared by @nonstop.archived
Swift’s lack of support may be weighing heavily on Trump.
Back in February, he claimed Swift should be grateful to him for making her “so much money,” and said she would be “disloyal” if she supported Biden again.
He also has argued to members of his camp that he is more popular than the singer, so any endorsement of Biden will mean nothing at the polls.
“Apprentice in Wonderland: How Donald Trump and Mark Burnett Took America Through the Looking Glass” will be published June 18.
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