The Real Reason A Donald Trump Official Was Warned About Playing Taylor Swift's Music

Donald Trump used to be a fan of Taylor Swift and her music, but that opinion changed over time. Before he became president, Trump occasionally posted tweets praising the pop superstar. "Glad to hear that @taylorswift13 will be co-hosting the Grammy nominations special ... Taylor is terrific!" he tweeted in 2012 (via Billboard). Trump used to openly rock out to Swift's music, and in 2014, Melania Trump took a video of Donald listening to Swift's hit "Blank Space" while driving. 

By 2018, Trump's fandom of the singer began to wane when he learned Swift had openly backed the Democratic candidate in the Tennessee Senate race. "I'm sure Taylor Swift has nothing – or doesn't know anything about her," he told the press at the time, per CNN. "Let's say that I like Taylor's music about 25% less now, OK?" he added. Over the next couple years, Trump's fandom would continue to diminish.

In 2019, Swift had incendiary words for how she believed Trump was running the nation. "We're a democracy — at least, we're supposed to be — where you're allowed to disagree, dissent, debate. I really think that [Trump] thinks this is an autocracy," she told The Guardian. The next year, Swift continued bashing Trump during the 2020 presidential election with a strongly worded tweet. "We will vote you out in November," she added. These gestures did not go unnoticed by Trump while he was in office.

Apparently, listening to Taylor Swift's music while working for the Donald Trump administration was a massive faux pas. Olivia Troye, a former homeland security advisor to former Vice President Mike Pence, revealed that she came under scrutiny while listening to the pop star at work. During an interview on MSNBC's "All In with Chris Hayes," Troye recalled a time when she blasted Swift tunes to let off some steam. "I came back and was playing Taylor Swift really loud in my office that night," she told Chris Hayes. Another staffer warned Troye that she was potentially playing with fire. "I had a colleague knock on my door and he said, 'Are you trying to get fired?" she recalled. Troye asked her colleague why listening to Swift was such a big deal. "Well, I don't think she's a fan of Trump's so if somebody hears that, you should really watch your back," they told her. Troye told Hayes that this sort of censorship made her "fear for the future of our country."

Since quitting her job with the Trump administration, Troye has agreed to several interviews about her time at the White House. Speaking to Wolf Blitzer in 2020, the former staffer said Trump makes his intentions known even with wild-sounding statements. "The president when he's joking, if he says that he's joking, he's telling you a half truth," Troye said (via Politico). She also told PBS in January that Trump actively sought to "discredit" those that oppose his "narrative."