Scooter Braun suggested he was on Taylor Swift’s side when it comes to the upcoming presidential election in a social media response to Donald Trump.
The 43-year-old talent manager shared a response to the Republican presidential nominee in his Instagram Stories on Sunday after Trump lashed out at Swift, 34, on his social media platform, Truth Social.
‘I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!’ Trump seethed on Sunday, after the songstress shared an endorsement shortly after his poorly reviewed debate performance in which she put her support behind Democratic Presidential Nominee Kamala Harris.
Despite Swift’s long history of feuding with Braun due to his purchase of most of her old master recordings, the record executive appeared to defend her against Trump while reemphasizing his own endorsement for the presidential election.
‘Shake it off Donald,’ Braun wrote in his post while including a screenshot of Trump’s original post.
Scooter Braun, 43, seemingly defended Taylor Swift on Sunday while mocking former President Donald Trump after he complained by Swift on his social media platform; seen in 2021 in LA
Braun also signaled his support for Democratic Presidential Nominee Kamala Harris after Swift endorsed her shortly after the presidential debate between Trump and Harris
He made it clear that he was supporting the Democrat in the race by adding ‘Kamala 2024’ below, along with an American flag emoji.
Braun has made few public political statements throughout the tumultuous election, but he previously revealed that he was endorsing Harris.
In an Instagram post from August 3, he shared multiple photos of himself with Kamala Harris while throwing his support behind her.
He boasted that he was ‘proud’ to call Harris his ‘friend,’ and he noted that he had previously voted for both Republicans and Democrats, but he said he thought she would be the best candidate to represent ‘all of us’ and to stand up ‘against antisemitism and hatred of all forms.’
Braun’s apparent defense of Swift and mockery of Trump was particularly unexpected after Swift had repeatedly lambasted him for buying up her old master recordings.
In 2019, Braun, funded by multiple private equity firms, purchased Taylor Swift’s former label Big Machine Records.
A year earlier, she had jumped ship for Republic Records to put out her future releases.
By buying the label, Braun gained ownership of all of Swift’s master recordings up through 2017’s Reputation, while 2019’s Lover was her first album with Republic.
As the owner, he would be able to profit from sales and streaming of her early albums.
Swift later claimed that she had attempted to buy her own master recordings but had been blocked by Big Machine Records, as they had only offered her a deal in which she would have to record a new album with Big Machine each time she wanted to regain her old master recordings, starting with her first album, 2006’s Taylor Swift.
In response, the Blank Space singer began rerecording all of the albums owned by Braun in deluxe ‘Taylor’s Version’ editions in the hopes that her fans would repurchase them and would only stream her rerecorded versions going forward, robbing Braun of the income he had expected to gain from her masters.
So far, the ‘Taylor’s Version’ series has been a success for Swift. The albums have been hits comparable to her new studio albums and have helped her break multiple sales records.
Some critics have also lauded the new versions for featuring Swift’s more mature voice compared to the original versions.
So far, Taylor doesn’t appear to have reacted to Scooter’s Instagram post referencing her.
‘I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!’ Trump seethed on Sunday, marking his most furious response to her since her attention-grabbing endorsement of his opponent; pictured Friday in Las Vegas
Braun wrote, ‘Shake it off Donald,’ and added, ‘Kamala 2024’
Braun and Swift have feuded since 2019, when he bought her master recordings up through 2017’s Reputation. She has since launched a rerecording campaign to regain control of her recordings and to strip him of income from them; pictured Wednesday in New York
Trump previously said he had ‘no idea’ about Swift’s endorsement shortly after the debate; pictured Saturday in Las Vegas
Trump posted ‘I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!’ on his Truth Social account without any additional context
Trump’s anti-Swift post on Truth Social came just five days after she said in a lengthy Instagram post that she would be voting for Harris in November.
She also encouraged her millions of followers to do their research on the election and register to vote with a link she shared of vote.gov on her Instagram story sharing her grid post.
Trump’s post on Sunday is his most furious response to Swift so far.
Right after the debate on Tuesday, Trump was asked about his reaction to Swift’s endorsement and he replied simply: ‘I have no idea.’
Hundreds of thousands of people — around 337,000 as of earlier this week — clicked on the link from Swift’s story. It represents a very small percentage of her 284 million followers.
More than 11 million people liked the image Swift posted of herself with one of her three cats named after a fictional character, Benjamin Button.
Swift signed her backing of Harris with: ‘Childless Cat Lady’
It is a reference to Trump’s running mate Sen. J.D. Vance, who said in a 2021 interview with Tucker Carlson that the US is being run by Democrats, corporate oligarchs and ‘a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too.’
Swift labeled herself a ‘childless cat lady’ with her lengthy Instagram post on Tuesday revealing her vote for 2024 and posting an image of herself with one of her three cats – Benjamin Button
The line was widely criticized by unmarried women across the country.
While some say Swift wading into the political waters of this election could be a huge game changer in November, polling numbers suggest her endorsement may have little influence on the state of the race.
A new ABC News/Ipsos poll released Sunday indicated that just six percent of Americans say the singer–songwriter’s endorsement makes them more likely to vote for Harris.
Meanwhile, 13 percent say it makes them less likely to back the ice president — though it’s unclear if those people were seriously considering voting for Harris in the first place — and 81 percent say it makes no difference.
