Politics
After Taylor Swift endorses Harris, Trump campaign copies her ‘Eras’ tour merch
Donald Trump has dismissed Taylor Swift’s endorsement of his election rivalbut it seems his campaign is still hoping to take advantage of her image for support. On Thursday, his campaign announced new Trump shirts that are brazen knockoffs of Swift’s “Eras” tour poster.
The T-shirts, which sell for $36, include a Trump image in the foreground, with different photos of him on a grid in the background. The design is an imitation of the poster for Swift’s billion-dollar-grossing tourwhich is also sold on T-shirts and various other merchandise. Trump’s campaign touted the product on X, calling it a “Trump Era shirt.”
It’s unclear what, if any, legal action Swift could take against Trump, who is already facing a host of notices from musicians and their estates to stop using their music at his campaign events. Swift is famously cautious about her public image, and her publicist is known to be intensely protective. Swift has yet to respond publicly to the campaign’s promotion.
But the pettiness of the move suggests the former president may be more agitated by Swift’s endorsement of Kamala Harris than he has let on. Last week, Trump suggested to Fox News that Swift’s endorsement would affect her success “in the marketplace” and said that he was not a fan.
“I actually like Mrs. Mahomes much better, if you want to know the truth,” Trump said, referring to Brittany Mahomesthe wife of Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and a friend of Swift’s who publicly expressed her support for Trump. “She’s a big Trump fan. I was not a Taylor Swift fan.”
Yet Trump has gone to lengths to use Swift’s popularity to his benefit. In August, he posted on Truth Social multiple AI-generated images of the pop star and her fans, known as “Swifties,” supporting him. Swift said in her endorsement of Harris that she was motivated to do so in part because of those fake images, writing, “It brought me to the conclusion that I need to be very transparent about my actual plans for this election as a voter.”
Swift has spoken up against Trump a handful of times over the years. Earlier this year, however, Trump said he did not believe Swift would endorse President Joe Biden in 2024 because in 2018 Trump signed bipartisan legislation to reform copyright law, arguing that she would not “be disloyal to the man who made her so much money.” (This despite the fact Swift previously endorsed Biden in 2020.)
Trump has also expressed disbelief that “a country star can be successful being liberal” (Swift started out making country music but has since moved into a decidedly pop direction) and asked if “she is liberal, or is that just an act?”
Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking/trending news blogger for BLN Digital. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.
NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the Trump administration to restore the government-run Voice of America’s operations after it had effectively been shut down a year ago, putting hundreds of employees who have been on administrative leave back to work.
U.S. District Court Judge Royce C. Lamberth gave the U.S. Agency for Global Media a week to put together a plan for putting Voice of America on the air. It has been operating with a skeleton staff since President Donald Trump issued an executive order to shut it down.
A week ago, Lamberth said Kari Lake, who had been Trump’s choice to lead the agency, did not have the legal authority to do what she had done at Voice of America. In Tuesday’s decision, Lamberth ruled on the actions she had taken to respond to Trump’s order, essentially shelving 1,042 of VOA’s 1,147 employees.
“Defendants have provided nothing approaching a principled basis for their decision,” Lamberth wrote.
There was no immediate comment on the decision by the agency overseeing Voice of America. Lake had denounced Lamberth’s March 7 ruling, saying it would be appealed. Since then, Trump nominated Sarah Rogers, the undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, to run USAGM. That requires Senate approval, a step that was not taken with Lake.
Patsy Widakuswara, Voice of America’s White House bureau chief and a plaintiff in the lawsuit to restore it, said she is deeply grateful for the decision.
“We are eager to begin repairing the damage Kari Lake has inflicted on our agency and our colleagues, to return to our congressional mandate, and to rebuild the trust of the global audience we have been unable to serve for the past year,” she said.
“We know the road to restoring VOA’s operations and reputation will be long and difficult,” she said. “We hope the American people will continue to support our mission to produce journalism, not propaganda.”
Voice of America has transmitted news coverage to countries around the world since its formation in World War II, often in countries with no tradition of a free press. Before Trump’s executive order, VOA had operated in 49 different languages, broadcasting to 362 million people.
NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the Trump administration to restore the government-run Voice of America’s operations after it had effectively been shut down a year ago, putting hundreds of employees who have been on administrative leave back to work.
U.S. District Court Judge Royce C. Lamberth gave the U.S. Agency for Global Media a week to put together a plan for putting Voice of America on the air. It has been operating with a skeleton staff since President Donald Trump issued an executive order to shut it down.
A week ago, Lamberth said Kari Lake, who had been Trump’s choice to lead the agency, did not have the legal authority to do what she had done at Voice of America. In Tuesday’s decision, Lamberth ruled on the actions she had taken to respond to Trump’s order, essentially shelving 1,042 of VOA’s 1,147 employees.
“Defendants have provided nothing approaching a principled basis for their decision,” Lamberth wrote.
There was no immediate comment on the decision by the agency overseeing Voice of America. Lake had denounced Lamberth’s March 7 ruling, saying it would be appealed. Since then, Trump nominated Sarah Rogers, the undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, to run USAGM. That requires Senate approval, a step that was not taken with Lake.
Patsy Widakuswara, Voice of America’s White House bureau chief and a plaintiff in the lawsuit to restore it, said she is deeply grateful for the decision.
“We are eager to begin repairing the damage Kari Lake has inflicted on our agency and our colleagues, to return to our congressional mandate, and to rebuild the trust of the global audience we have been unable to serve for the past year,” she said.
“We know the road to restoring VOA’s operations and reputation will be long and difficult,” she said. “We hope the American people will continue to support our mission to produce journalism, not propaganda.”
Voice of America has transmitted news coverage to countries around the world since its formation in World War II, often in countries with no tradition of a free press. Before Trump’s executive order, VOA had operated in 49 different languages, broadcasting to 362 million people.
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