Donald Trump is in his “Reputation” era.
The former president muses about pop princess Taylor Swift in a new book about his years as a reality star, “Apprentice in Wonderland: How Donald Trump and Mark Burnett Took America Through the Looking Glass,” written by Variety co-editor-in-chief Ramin Setoodeh.
When Setoodeh asked Trump his thoughts on the musical mastermind in November 2023, he was effusive in his praise — of her appearance, that is.
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“I think she’s beautiful — very beautiful! I find her very beautiful. I think she’s liberal. She probably doesn’t like Trump. I hear she’s very talented,” he said. “I think she’s very beautiful, actually — unusually beautiful!”
Swift had been rumored to be a secret Republican during the 2016 election cycle, before she publicly endorsed Tennessee Democratic candidates Phil Bredesen for Senate and Jim Cooper for House of Representatives in 2018.
“In the past I’ve been reluctant to publicly voice my political opinions, but due to several events in my life and in the world in the past two years, I feel very differently about that now,” she wrote on Instagram at the time, railing against candidate Marsha Blackburn’s voting record. “I always have and always will cast my vote based on which candidate will protect and fight for the human rights I believe we all deserve in this country.”
In her documentary “Miss Americana,” Swift elaborated on her decision to become politically vocal. “Back in the [2016] presidential election, I was in such a horrendous place that I wasn’t going to pop my head out,” she explains. “These aren’t your dad’s celebrities and these aren’t your dad’s Republicans… I need to be on the right side of history.”
She went on to support Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in 2020, taking aim at Trump in the wake of the George Floyd protests that same year. “After stoking the fires of white supremacy and racism your entire presidency, you have the nerve to feign moral superiority before threatening violence? ‘When the looting starts the shooting starts’??? We will vote you out in November,” she tweeted at Trump. The 14-time Grammy winner has yet to make an endorsement for the upcoming 2024 election.
It seems Trump still has bad blood with her over those fearless political statements. “She is liberal, or is that just an act?” he asked Setoodeh during their interview. “She’s legitimately liberal? It’s not an act? It surprises me that a country star can be successful being liberal.”
Of course, Swift hasn’t released a country album since 2012’s “Red,” which also saw her begin to branch out into a poppier sound. When Setoodeh pointed that out, Trump simply pulled out another name: “Garth Brooks is liberal. Explain that! How does it happen?”
On May 31, Trump was found guilty of all 34 charges of falsifying business records in connection with a payout to porn actress Stormy Daniels on the eve of the 2016 election.
HarperCollins
“Apprentice in Wonderland” also features Trump’s unfiltered thoughts on Kim Kardashian, Debra Messing, Omarosa Manigault, Geraldo Rivera, Martha Stewart, Arnold Schwarzenegger and more. Read an exclusive passage from the book below:
If these celebrities Trump spent time with while he was on top no longer call, a rising generation of new stars see him, simply, as a villain, never having experienced his glad-handing side. During one of our conversations, in the winter of 2023, I ask Trump what he thinks of the biggest celebrity of our times: Taylor Swift, who was at the time selling out stadiums globally on her Eras Tour. (She opened her tour with her 2019 song “Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince,” widely perceived as being about the division sown by Trump.)
Trump, usually one to punch back at critics, is smart enough to know Swift’s fame is on another level. “She’s got a great star quality,” Trump says. “She really does.” Trump is effusive as he uses one of his favorite adjectives to describe women—“beautiful”— several times in a row.
“I think she’s beautiful—very beautiful! I find her very beautiful. I think she’s liberal. She probably doesn’t like Trump. I hear she’s very talented. I think she’s very beautiful, actually—unusually beautiful!” It’s her fame, not her songcraft, that fascinates Trump. When asked about Swift’s music, played so frequently on the radio that it’s inescapable in daily life, he says, “Don’t know it well.”
Beyond Swift’s looks, what intrigues Trump the most is the idea— frequently bandied about online before she endorsed the Democratic Senate candidate in Tennessee in 2018—that she could secretly be supporting him. “But she is liberal, or is that just an act?” he asks me. “She’s legitimately liberal? It’s not an act? It surprises me that a country star can be successful being liberal.”
I tell Trump that Swift is no longer a country star; she’s been making pop music for years. He doesn’t seem aware of this, but he reaches for a different name. “Garth Brooks is liberal. Explain that! How does it happen? But he’s liberal.” Trump trails off. “It’s one of those things . .”
“Apprentice in Wonderland” will be published on June 18 by HarperCollins.
