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Taylor Swift has finally taken action against Donald Trump and his social media team, but some of her critics believe that it’s too little, too late. After several of her songs have popped up on Trump’s recent TikTok videos, she has officially removed the audio from the posts.
But since she hasn’t made a statement against the president connected to the incident, people are disappointed she isn’t doing more to make it clear that she does not support the decisions being made by his administration.
Taylor’s songs disappeared from Trump’s videos over the weekend.
@teamtrump I’m sure @Taylor Swift is going to be super excited we used her song! #taylorswift #maga #august ♬ som original – ⸆⸉ ོ
The catalyst for the change seems to be the video that Trump’s campaign account, @teamtrump on TikTok, shared last week. The footage shows Trump and first lady Melania watching fireworks as Taylor’s song “August” plays in the background. The text on the screen reads, “Mood because it’s August and Donald Trump is your president.”
In the caption, the team added, “I’m sure @Taylor Swift is going to be super excited we used her song!”
Usually, Taylor ignores the White House’s attempts at poking at her, but this must have been the last straw. Not only did she file a copyright claim that removed the audio from this post, but also from the other posts that the Trump administration has shared that have included her music.
People still aren’t impressed with her version of taking action, though.
Taylor’s critics don’t think she’s doing nearly enough to combat Trump during a time when he’s putting Americans’ lives at risk, and on Reddit, many people accused her of caring more about her brand than doing the right thing.
“She’s basically untouchable, she can say and do whatever she wants. If she wanted to condemn something she would,” one person wrote.
Others think she only took action this time because Trump’s team tagged her in the post, with one writing, “Someone said it was because she was specifically tagged and that was why the removal probably happened and I can’t help but think that’s accurate.”
Some fans are convinced that she’s quietly done more behind the scenes.
Taylor has always made it clear that she isn’t a republican, whether she’s supporting the democratic candidate in different elections (including past presidential elections, like when she endorsed Kamala Harris in 2024). But during Trump’s second term, she hasn’t been nearly as outspoken, and some fans have a theory it’s because she’s doing more work behind the scenes to fight against him.
In this instance, some have a hunch that she was able to get TikTok to change a policy about how much control artists have of which profiles use their official audio instead of having to remove their songs entirely from the app, though TikTok hasn’t confirmed or denied that’s what happened.
She calls herself a mastermind, and she’s not wrong to — but if she wants to share her strategy about fighting Trump with the class, we are all ears.
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