The 2024 presidential election in the United States is shaping up day-by-day to be one of the most consequential elections in history. Why has a politically ambiguous pop-star become the centre of it?
America has long been known as a divided country, both literally and politically (I know someone who once observed that the United States is basically fifty children standing on each other’s shoulders in a trench coat so that they can sit with the grownups). This division has always been there and has often been vast, but perhaps never before has it been as consequential as it will be, come the election in November. On the one side, there is an ageing leader with a tendency to slur words and a questionable approach to foreign policy, though he has, to his credit, managed to secure an economy with record-low unemployment and rising real wages. On the other side, we have another ageing man, though this one is promising to do his best to incite a global nuclear war and ensure the planet burns before anyone can get a word in edgeways. Oh, and he also hates Taylor Swift.
The Trump campaign’s self-titled ‘holy war’ against the megastar is only the most recent of the former president’s signature style of making headlines with ramblings that are simultaneously unbelievable yet entirely unsurprising to hear coming from the mouth of this former and potential world leader. Nobody is even entirely sure how it started; something to do with Taylor’s new NFL boyfriend? Or her recent Grammy’s? I’m sure it was something along the lines of Trump seeing her in headlines — a place where, in his mind, his name should always reign supreme no matter what — and throwing a temper tantrum. Whatever the reason was, it’s hard to imagine it was a political one; at the time of writing this Taylor has still notably failed to officially endorse Biden’s 2024 run, despite her doing so in 2020. Why, then, do Trump’s loyal disciples loath her so? Is it just plain misogyny? And if so, what about all the other famous women out there they could be shitting on? What exactly is so special about Taylor Swift?
If I am being honest with you, I really don’t have a clue about that last one. But the answer to the others is likely because, quite simply, Swift is not just famous, she is really fucking famous. Not only is she the biggest pop star currently performing, but she proved in 2023 to be so popular that a video of her in concert became the highest-grossing concert film of all time, and one of the highest-grossing films of the year. To top it off she was also TIME’s 2023 Person of the Year (though once again, nobody quite seems to understand why). With a career spanning almost two decades, Taylor Swift has become a face more synonymous with 21st-century pop culture than arguably anyone else; maybe even Trump.
Now, if you are struggling to visualise just how much influence that translates into, I would like you to consider that earlier this month YouTubers Dan and Phil, who peaked in popularity some ten years ago and have a total of 3.1 million subscribers on their main account (Taylor Swift has 280 million on Instagram alone), were able to raise over $100,000 for humanitarian aid in Palestine during a live stream that lasted a total of only two hours. And this didn’t even make a headline anywhere. Taylor Swift’s potential influence, then, over an election that more than ever before will consider the ‘culture wars’ as a major point of contention, is difficult to evaluate. But given her past endorsement of Biden, it is easy to understand how she may be considered a threat by die-hard Trumpians. Why exactly this translates into Trump becoming determined to push her into the political spotlight is anyone’s guess. It certainly seems that making a martyr of one of the most influential people on the planet is hardly advisable politics, no matter who you are. This ‘holy war’ is already turning Swift into a face of the Left in the eyes of many; even if her own politics are, in fact, incredibly mirky.
Swift only first ventured into politics at all in 2018, when she endorsed Democratic candidates in Tennessee. Beyond this and her 2020 endorsement of Biden, we are left largely to read between the lines; these lines being friendships and relationships with misogynistic and racist men, and a sort of bizarre pre-teen feminism in which she pines for the right to operate in patriarchal, prejudiced and hyper-capitalist ‘hustle cultures’, rather than dismantle them. Maybe this ‘hustle’ mentality is the reason for the three-figure ticket prices for her concerts. There’s also much to criticise in her excessive flying, which puts her once again at number one, though this time it’s number one in the list of celebrities with the biggest carbon footprint. Although you shouldn’t worry too much about that, as it probably won’t weigh on the public consciousness much longer after she threatened legal action against a student tracking her private jet to measure its carbon footprint.
If there is anyone outside of the two candidates themselves who can swing this election one way or another, then it looks as though Taylor Swift has a good claim to that title. Personally, I wouldn’t advise considering the word of a musician with any more political weight than any other person you don’t know; but, clearly, I am in the minority there. I can only hope that these people, who religiously thank their fans over and over and over again for the success they’ve granted them, realise that they do, actually, have the power to give back to the world. In fact, they have the power to give a whole hell of a lot.
Pomelo 
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