Sandler hosted, and Trump grilled.
The White House went even further on Taylor Swift’s Friday, posting a meme appropriating Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s wedding at Madison Square Garden.
In an Instagram post on Friday evening, the White House mocked the park’s purple digital billboard for Swift and Kelsey’s “JUST&T Married” by replacing it with the message “Trump is your president,” along with a similar text “It happened!” Which only makes sense if you think about it for less than two seconds.
This post follows one from Thursday night in which Trump’s image dominates a collage of all-American images like Iwo Jima and Miracle on Ice, below the caption “America’s Eras Tour,” in a parody of Swift’s poster for the giant 2023 concert; It even included Taylor’s song “It’s Been a Long Time” from that storm.
The specter of a wedding on a national holiday seems to rile up a White House that’s particularly sensitive to Swift: The White House also released two videos montage of X moments in American history by repurposing Swift; “Next on the American Ages Tour,” one declared, while another described “America’s greatest hits, era by era.”
Compared to some of the other celebrity cases Trump has been involved in — just this week he posted an AI-powered video as a doctor treating Julia Roberts and Robert De Niro for “Trump Derangement Syndrome” — this has proven to be pretty tame, even with an air of grudging blessing. There’s a reason for that.
Running against liberal movie stars is a risk-free bet for the president and an easy win for his base. However, going after Swift requires more shade for Trump, who knows that many people in swing states where he supports candidates look up to her and her liberal views, and that war with her could result in votes against him. That’s one of the reasons he said he wished the couple well (but also predicted they wouldn’t last).
The choice of a Fourth of July weekend, with icons performing on a large stage, also caught Trump, whether intentionally or not, by surprise, who wanted something similar for himself with the Freedom 250 concert, but saw even musicians like Martina McBride and Bret Michaels — hardly progressive sensations — pull out because they didn’t want to be associated with the partisan celebration.
Meanwhile, Stevie Nicks and Paul McCartney are taking the stage, or planning to, with the country’s biggest pop star at the wedding on Friday night. In front of a crowd of liberal artists, in what will be the first pop concert in the world to include a marriage announcement from Billy Madison.
Swift seems to have an extraordinary ability to access Trump, rent free, and live in his mind. After Trump in 2024 posted a deepfake of Swift endorsing him over Kamala Harris, she clarified that she had not done so, prompting him to post: “I hate Taylor Swift!”
Although she has been largely quiet during this period, Swift came out forcefully against Trump during the height of the BLM protests in 2020, accusing him of “fanning the flames of white supremacy and racism during your entire presidency” and vowing to vote him out of office in the fall. Trump responded with a series of comments saying he liked her less and less; He later said that her liberal views would make her “pay a price…in the market,” a sum she does not appear to be paying.
Ironically, Swift’s 1,000-person wedding, with the musical performances she’s said to be taking part in on a large stage, is precisely the kind of spectacle he might appreciate.
Of course, this might be exactly what’s infuriating, because it’s a scene meant for someone else.
