Trump Team Uses Taylor Swift Song to Troll Her, Then Copyright Claim Forces Them to Go Silent

The Trump administration appears to have had a short-lived plan to use Taylor Swift’s own music to get under her fans’ skin. Earlier this week, the White House TikTok account posted a video featuring Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump watching fireworks from behind. The image was paired with Swift’s song “august,” a track from her 2020 album “Folklore.”

The video also included a message aimed directly at Swift. “I’m sure @Taylor Swift is going to be super excited we used her song!” Team Trump wrote at the bottom of the post. The joke did not stay online for long.

According to Deadline, the Swift song and the message were later removed from the TikTok post. In their place, users saw a notice saying, “The copyright owner hasn’t made this sound available in your country.”

Swift’s fans quickly celebrated the change in the comments. Some users wrote, “TAYLOR REMOVING THE AUDIO. QUEEEEN,” while another posted, “TAYLOR QUEEN SWIFT.” One fan simply wrote, “She removed it, clocked you guys.”

The situation could have ended there, but the Trump social media team had another Swift song ready to go. A second TikTok was posted using “Red,” another major Swift hit. This time, the caption took another shot at the singer, saying, “Did you know Taylor Swift wrote a whole album about the color of the Republican Party.”

The posts are part of a long-running political feud between Trump and Swift. The singer publicly supported Kamala Harris during the 2024 presidential campaign, something that clearly angered Trump.

Trump has previously made his feelings about Swift known on social media. However, the relationship between the two sides appeared to become less heated last year when Trump was asked about Swift’s upcoming marriage to NFL star Travis Kelce.

At the time, Trump offered a much friendlier response.“Well, I wish them a lot of luck. He’s a great player, and I think he’s a great guy, and I think that she’s a terrific person, so I wished them a lot of luck.” That moment of calm now seems to be over, at least online.

The latest TikTok posts show that Swift remains a popular target for political trolling, especially because of her huge fan base and her past political comments. Using songs like “august” and “Red” also gives the posts an extra layer of attention because Swift owns or controls important parts of her music catalog.

For now, it is unclear whether the removal of “august” was directly requested by Swift herself or simply the result of TikTok’s music licensing restrictions. The message shown on the platform specifically referred to the copyright owner and the sound not being available in the country.

Either way, the attempted troll quickly became another story about Swift’s influence online.

And with the Trump team already using another Swift song in a follow-up video, this particular music battle may not be finished just yet.

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