Taylor Swift's trip to the US Open Men's Final on Sunday seemed, at first glance, like a normal day in the life of the world's biggest pop star. Swift was joined in her VIP box at Flushing Meadows by her boyfriend Travis Kelce, the Haim sisters, and Kelce's Kansas City Chiefs teammate Patrick Mahomes - and, to the fury of Swifties everywhere, his wife Brittany.
For those unfamiliar with the ins and outs of Swift's social circle, her decision to hang out with Kelce's friends was less a fun day out than an event fraught with controversy. Brittany, 29, from Texas, who has been in a relationship with NFL quarterback Patrick since high school, drew the ire of social media users last month when she "liked" a public Instagram post from Donald Trump that listed 20 of his promises for America. They included: "Carry out the largest deportation operation in American history" and "End federal funding to any school that promotes critical race theory and radical gender ideology."
Brittany, a former athlete turned entrepreneur, refused to apologize and liked posts from other Republicans praising her for not backing down. She then shared a post from Christian blogger Shane Pruitt on Instagram Stories that read, "Contrary to the tone of the world today... You can disagree with someone and still love them. You can have different opinions and still be kind." The call for kindness was echoed by some fans in Swift's camp, who insisted the singer could be friends with whomever she wanted, from both sides of the political divide. But last week, Trump added fuel to the fire when he posted on Truth Social, "I want to thank the beautiful Brittany Mahomes for defending me so vigorously."
In light of the controversy, many Swifties breathed a sigh of relief when her appearance at the Chiefs' first game of the season last Thursday didn't involve a public love-in with Brittany: Perhaps the 34-year-old was distancing herself after seeing her fans' concern, they wrote online. Perhaps she would finally endorse Kamala Harris for president (she endorsed Joe Biden four years ago, even baking cookies that read "Biden Harris 2020"). But then came the Open, and the event became a showcase for what critics saw as Swift's continued political cowardice.
Despite her unparalleled influence-she has 284 million followers on Instagram and is the most-streamed artist globally on Spotify-Swift has chosen to remain mum on whether Donald Trump or Kamala will run for the White House in 2024. Rumors that she would appear at the Democratic National Convention to sing a song with Beyoncé turned out to be false ; even Trump's sharing of deepfake AI-generated images of Swifties wearing Maga T-shirts was met with silence, rather than a walkout from Swift's team.
As a result, her fans have taken matters into their own hands. The nonprofit "Swifties4Kamala" has decided to campaign for the Democrats without her, and has already raised hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations. Elsewhere, popular fan accounts on X and Instagram have threatened to stop listening to her music if she doesn't support Harris.
It's easy to dismiss these threats as the empty, inconsequential whining of the "woke" Gen Z, which will have little impact on the richest woman in pop music. But Swift occupies a unique position in the industry because of her level of fame and her closeness to her fans, who see her as a moral force as well as a singer. It's become a double-edged sword: on the one hand, her material successes - her globe-trotting, record-breaking Eras tour, 14 Grammy Awards, billions in the bank - and on the other, the constant demand that she be seen as a force for good that goes beyond her music. Her refusal to cut ties with Brittany stands in stark contrast to the rapid dissolution of her relationship with The 1975 frontman Matty Healy last year after fans accused him of being racist.
When Swift publicly endorsed Biden in 2020, her career was in a very different place. Her seventh album, Lover, released the year before, hadn't performed as well as hoped. That same year, she released her ultra-personal Netflix documentary Miss Americana , officially ending her decision to stay "out" of national politics.
These days, the singer has never been more famous, or more marketable-which is why her fans are increasingly nervous about her lack of support for Harris's campaign. Swift's political clout takes precedence: last year, her call for fans to register to vote led to 35,000 people signing up in 24 hours, while her vocal support for women's and LGBTQ+ issues has made her something of a figurehead for left-wing American women. Before Swift was the voice of liberals, though, she was the quintessential American girl-a country singer beloved by both the left and the right. Raised in a small Pennsylvania town by her businessman father, Scott, who later moved the family to Nashville to pursue Swift's career, her early music was filled with pious religious messages and tales of falling in love with the boy next door.
Few in Nashville could have predicted that she would later shed this conservative image to become a commercial pop star. It was a move criticized by those closest to the singer, who feared that any open support for the Democrats would damage her standing among the American right; in Miss Americana, her father and adviser express concern that her future tours could alienate her core fan base if she publicly criticized Trump.
Some fans are blaming her lack of approval on heightened security concerns: the final London shows of the Eras tour were marred by the cancellation of her Vienna shows. But to others, Swift's refusal to "pick a side" in what is shaping up to be the most fraught election in American history is a betrayal of the harshest kind: a woman with all the money and power in the world choosing to weather the storm in her ivory tower.
