Did Taylor Swift endorse Joe Biden? What to know amid Donald Trump comment

In a Thursday meeting with House Republicans, former President Donald Trump implied Taylor Swift endorsed President Joe Biden.

Trump met with congressional Republicans on Capitol Hill for the first time since 2021. House Speaker Mike Johnson said yesterday, “We’re excited to welcome President Trump back,” and today, the group reportedly sang “Happy Birthday” to the former president, a day ahead of his 78th birthday.

The meeting followed his criminal conviction in Manhattan on May 30, when a jury found Trump guilty of all 34 counts of falsifying business records related to his 2016 campaign. Many of Trump’s congressional supporters have echoed the former president’s comments that the trial was a “sham.”

On Thursday morning, CNN reporter Melanie Zanona posted on X, formerly Twitter, that presumptive GOP nominee Trump asked a group of House Republicans, “why would she endorse this dope?” talking about Swift, implying she had endorsed Biden.

The singer has not made any official social media posts or statements about supporting a candidate in the upcoming election, which is slated to be a rematch of the 2020 contest featuring Biden and Trump.

Another reporter, Emily Brooks from The Hill posted on X: “Trump told GOP members that he was surprised that Taylor Swift did not support him, given that he signed into law a bill to help songwriters, per Rep. Ben Cline (R-Va.),” presumably referring to the Music Modernization Act.

In a new book about Donald Trump’s reality TV years by Ramin Setoodeh, the former president described Taylor Swift as “unusually beautiful” and added, “I think she’s liberal. She probably doesn’t like Trump.”

Newsweek has reached out to the Trump campaign and Swift’s publicist for comment.

Swift, who has a huge following, previously endorsed Biden in the 2020 match up, just a month before Election Day. She has encouraged her upward of 283 million followers on Instagram to register to vote over the years.

In 2018, the singer posted her endorsement for Tennessee Democratic candidates Phil Bredesen for Senate and Jim Cooper for Representative, saying on Instagram: “In the past I’ve been reluctant to publicly voice my political opinions, but due to several events in my life and in the world in the past two years, I feel very differently about that now.” She also listed instructions for how to register to vote.

Due to her large following and platform, Swift’s endorsement may impact the outcome of the 2024 presidential election.A May poll conducted by Redfield & Wilton Strategies for Newsweek found 22 percent of voters who supported Biden in the 2020 election say they would be more likely to vote for a GOP candidate in an election if Swift endorsed them.

The poll of 1,500 eligible voters conducted on May 1, shows a nine-point increase from January, when only 13 percent of Biden 2020 supporters said they would be more like to vote for a Republican candidate backed by Swift.

Of Trump 2020 voters, 13 percent said they would be more likely to vote for a Democratic candidate endorsed by Taylor Swift, according to the January poll. In May, that number rose to 16 percent.

Both the May and January polls had a margin of error of +/-2.53 percent. The January survey was conducted among 1,500 eligible voters on January 18.

The presidential election remains very tight, with FiveThirtyEight’s national poll aggregator showing Trump leading Biden by 0.9 points on Thursday. The candidates are set for their first presidential election debate of this cycle to take place on June 27, with a second slated in September.

Updated 6/13/24 at 12:35 p.m. ET: This article was updated to include additional information.