Cards on the table: As a monger of clicks, I have fully feasted on the pending drama between Taylor Swift and Brittany Mahomes. Celebrity gossip is how I made my bones, and it will probably be what I'm doing when I give up the ghost. (Wow, this got depressing fast.)
Anyway, for a moment, it seemed like this puppy was going to have some teeth: Swift and Mahomes did not sit together at the Kansas City Chiefs game on Thursday night, lending credence to the speculation that their short-lived BFF status just went up in flames thanks to Mahomes all but outing herself as a Trump supporter. A move that did not go unnoticed by Trump, who blasted it to the five real people that actually use Truth Social.
However, after shameless click monkeys like myself built this drama into a pressure cooker scenario where there can be only one, Swift and Mahomes were spotted at the U.S. Open like nothing ever happened (see above). And, really, why wouldn't they? Patrick Mahomes is Travis Kelce's quarterback, and the two have been tight for years. As someone who stopped talking to his own brother after he became a full-blown MAGA weirdo, I get the impetus to expect others to cut off relationships over supporting Trump. I truly do. That said, I also know that's a very online phenomenon that's disconnected from the real world, which puts this whole post in an awkward spot because, let's face it, I'm writing for a hyper-political audience that exists ... online.
Obviously, watching Taylor Swift get pummeled with backlash if she stayed friends with Brittany Mahomes was always going to be part of this misadventure. But then I saw the backlash, and I don't know why I was so surprised when it became immediately unhinged. Let me be clear, the entire thesis of my 17-year-long writing career has been "Do not worship celebrities. Ever." However, around 2015, I started developing a strong aversion to bullsh*t social media narratives like, oh I dunno, "both parties are the same." So, with that in mind, here I am caping for the most successful pop star of the decade, who will be completely fine with her billions of dollars while I'm sweating bullets over taking my family on our first vacation in two years. (Is it too late to delete this whole post? I can easily write about Spider-Man 4 instead. Dammit.)
Welp, here goes: Taylor Swift is not secretly MAGA. I started seeing this talking point even before she showed up with Mahomes at the U.S. Open, and I have to ask, are you people goldfish? Do you not have object permanence? Just this year, there was an entire freakout that Swift would endorse Joe Biden at the Super Bowl because her political beliefs are not a secret. Everyone knows what they are! She's pro-LGBTQ, pro-choice, anti-white supremacy, and anti-Trump. Thank God she kept her powder dry and didn't endorse Biden because he's kind of not in the race anymore.
One of the arguments I saw for Swift's secret MAGA-ness is that her dad is an investment banker, so she definitely has some MAGA people in her orbit, and yeah, probably! Who doesn't have MAGA people in their orbit? My dad is an evangelical pastor, and both him and my mom are MAGA as hell. They're in my orbit, but guess what? I sure as sh*t ain't MAGA.
As for the endorsement elephant in the room, I cannot stress this fact enough: Taylor Swift didn't endorse Joe Biden until October. I will be very surprised if she doesn't stick to a similar timeline for Kamala. While I have grave concerns about people taking their political cues from celebrities, Swift's impact is quantifiable. She has caused massive spikes in voter registration, so I'm going to give her the benefit of the doubt that she's waiting for maximum impact. I could be very wrong and she'll spend the next two months slamming White Claws in a VIP box without saying a peep, but I will be shocked if she doesn't come out for Kamala.
Circling back to the Mahomes situation, you ever dated someone with sh*tty friends or family that you might as well be cordial with? It happens. Will this teach me a lesson in mixing serious political stakes with celebrity drama? Hahaha, that's funny. You guys are funny.