Every August, Taylor Swift’s “august” goes viral, but now the song is making headlines for a different reason. Donald Trump’s team has used it to troll Swift on TikTok, pairing it with a video of Trump and Melania watching fireworks. “I’m sure Taylor Swift will be totally thrilled that we’re using her song,” read the caption that accompanied the video. Now, the video has gone soundless.
It hasn’t been the only instance. In another post, Trump’s team leaned on “Red” to riff another joke at Swift’s expense: “Did you know Taylor Swift wrote an entire album about the color of the Republican Party?” They even invented song titles based on the idea. As with “august,” the audio has disappeared.
So, in a way, Swift has returned the trolling. She hasn’t spoken publicly, but the audio from her songs has been removed from videos on Trump and White House accounts. And it’s curious because Swift has long been linked to MAGA by her husband, Travis Kelce, and because until now she hadn’t seemed particularly worried about the White House using her songs. In fact, after their wedding, the White House itself had already mocked the couple.
Swift isn’t the only one fed up with Donald Trump and his antics. In recent weeks, Katy Perry has protested the use of “Firework” in a White House video related to the Iran conflict, while Sabrina Carpenter also rejected the use of her music in Trump-related content.
