Donald Trump Declares That It Would Be ‘Disloyal’ For Taylor Swift To Endorse Joe Biden

On Sunday, former President Donald Trump declared on his social media platform that if Taylor Swift endorsed President Joe Biden, it would be an act of disloyalty.

“I signed and was responsible for the Music Modernization Act (MMA) for Taylor Swift and all other Musical Artists,” Trump wrote on a Truth Social post. “Joe Biden didn’t do anything for Taylor, and never will. There’s no way she could endorse Crooked Joe Biden, the worst and most corrupt President in the History of our Country, and be disloyal to the man who made her so much money. Besides that, I like her boyfriend, Travis [Kelce], even though he may be a Liberal, and probably can’t stand me.”

Swift has been the subject of a right-wing conspiracy theory that claims that her romantic relationship with Kelce is part of a Democratic Party “psyop” intended to persuade voters to support Biden in November 2024.

Swift endorsed Biden in 2020 but has not yet endorsed him again this year.

Trump’s appeal references an act he signed into law as president in October 2018, after the House of Representatives and Senate approved it but with which he otherwise was not involved.

The bill, initially known as the Musical Works Modernization Act, was first introduced to the House by Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Virginia) in December 2017 with the intention of improving copyright law and the paying of royalties to performing artists – an update that was necessary for the digital streaming era.

What later on became the Music Modernization Act was sequentially introduced to the Senate by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) in January 2018.

It passed the House in April 2018 and the Senate the following September, before being signed by Trump in October of that year.

“Basically, the MMA changes the way songwriters and music publishers are paid statutory mechanical royalties when their work is streamed on interactive streaming services like Apple Music or Spotify, or sold on downloading services like Amazon Music,” the description of the MMA on the Library of Congress’s website states.

“Beginning in 2021, a nonprofit entity designated by the Copyright Office, called the Mechanical Licensing Collective, or MLC, will collect and distribute these royalty payments to copyright owners of musical works matched to sound recordings in its database,” the description says. “And down the line, but no earlier than 2023, any unclaimed royalties can start being paid to copyright owners and songwriters of matched works according to each work’s market share. But to get paid, you will need to register your songs with the MLC.”

In 2019, Swift gave an acceptance speech at the MTV Video Music Awards in which she slammed Trump’s administration for ignoring the Equality Act petition for LGBTQ rights.

The video that helped her win the Video of the Year Award for was “You Need To Calm Down.” It features cameos from many gay and transgender celebrities like Laverne Cox, Jesse Tyler Ferguson and the cast of Queer Eye.

Earlier this year, Trump boasted to his aides that he is more popular than Swift after speculation by right-wing commentators suggested that she is planning on endorsing Biden this year. The president’s aides want to sign her on as a campaign surrogate.

Trump claimed that celebrity endorsements would not help Biden, believing that he is “more popular” than the pop singer, and that his fans are more dedicated than hers.

In December 2023, the former president reportedly said it was ridiculous that Swift was declared Time Magazine’s Person of the Year in 2023 instead of him.

Swift has gained significant attention from right-wing media. Fox News host Sean Hannity questioned why she would want to endorse Biden on January 30 during his commentary program, Hannity. He said that the president has no energy and is “creepy.”