In a copyright strike that delighted her massive fanbase, Taylor Swift apparently blocked Donald Trump from using her 2020 track “August” in a promotional TikTok video by Friday evening. The now muted clip, originally posted on Monday by the official Team Trump account, featured the former president and First Lady Melania stiffly watching a Fourth of July fireworks display from a balcony.
For context, the social media blunder arrives amidst a messy and highly public history between the 36-year-old pop star and the Republican standard bearer. The original post boldly attempted to capitalize on the turn of the month, with the caption reading, “I’m sure @Taylor Swift is going to be super excited we used her song! #taylorswift #maga #august.” Unsurprisingly, the singer, who famously endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election cycle, was not thrilled, and the audio vanished from the platform ahead of the weekend.
Fans immediately recognized the absurdity of the campaign using a track from Folklore without permission, especially given Swift’s vocal opposition to Trump’s politics. Before the song was even scrubbed from the app, supporters flooded the comment section anticipating a legal smackdown.
“Here before Taylor Swift tells him to take it down,” one user wrote shortly after the video went live. That single comment racked up nearly 25,000 likes from people who knew exactly how protective the artist is of her intellectual property.
While the world’s highest-grossing live performer never publicly addressed the situation, someone on her team clearly got to work. By Friday night, the campaign video was reduced to an uncomfortable silence, slapped with a generic platform tag reading, “This audio is not available.”
Yet in a genuinely wild PR move, the campaign chose not to delete the post entirely. As of Saturday, Team Trump’s original caption boasting about Swift’s presumed excitement remained completely unchanged, adding an unintentional layer of comedy to the silent footage of padded shoulders and unmoving stances. (Leaving the caption up while the audio gets universally nuked is a choice, to say the least.)
A Messy Timeline Of Taylor Swift And Donald Trump
The former president’s social media team gleefully trying to co-opt a Swift hit feels particularly disjointed when you look at how he has spoken about her in recent years. Following a period where Trump uncomfortably fawned over the singer’s success, their dynamic fractured completely in 2020.
Swift took to X (formerly Twitter) to publicly condemn his rhetoric during the nationwide protests. “After stoking the fires of white supremacy and racism your entire presidency, you have the nerve to feign moral superiority before threatening violence?” she wrote. “‘When the looting starts the shooting starts’??? We will vote you out in November. @realdonaldtrump.”
That animosity only deepened when she officially threw her weight behind Kamala Harris in 2024. Trump reacted with signature caps lock fury, raging online with a blunt declaration, “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!”
During the opening months of his return to the White House, he followed up that outburst by bizarrely musing to his followers, “Has anyone noticed that, since I said ‘I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT,’ she’s no longer ‘HOT?’”
The Muted TikTok Audio Humiliates Donald Trump As Taylor Swift Fans Celebrate
Despite Trump’s documented hostility toward the pop star, his digital team still tried to ride the coattails of her cultural dominance. It backfired spectacularly, giving Swift’s fiercely loyal fans a reason to celebrate the digital humiliation.
“TAYLOR REMOVING THE AUDIO QUEEEEEEN,” one commenter cheered after the copyright claim went through.
Another user leaned into the awkwardness of the silent fireworks display, joking, “Is the song with us right now?”
“Hahahahaha you messed with the wrong successful woman,” chimed in a third, while a fourth simply added, “She muted it, well done Taylor Swift.”
What makes the campaign’s attempt to court her aesthetic even stranger is Trump’s own erratic flip-flopping on how he views the singer. Although it seems her management team is actively working to enforce a strict separation from the MAGA crowd, Trump has occasionally tried to offer weird olive branches.
When asked by reporters last August about her engagement to Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, Trump delivered a surprisingly measured response. “Well, I wish them a lot of luck,” he stated. “I think he’s a great player and he’s a great guy, and I think that she’s a terrific person. So I wish them a lot of luck.”
Now his team is left with a muted TikTok and a comment section entirely dominated by people mocking the botched stunt. Whether the campaign actually thought they could use her music without consequence or simply didn’t care, the swift digital takedown proves her legal team isn’t playing around.
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