Former President Donald Trump’s team just risked angering a powerful group of American voters: the Swifties.
On Thursday, Trump’s campaign dropped a new piece of merch based off of Taylor Swift’s Eras tee, escalating the tension after the superstar endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president in a post on Instagram.
The shirt, which features a black-and-white picture of Trump against a multicolor collage, goes for $45. It features well-known images of the former president, from his mug shot to a photo taken directly after the assassination attempt.
On X, commenters were largely peeved by the merch drop, with several urging Swift to take legal action and even tagging her longtime publicist Tree Paine.
“My culture is not your costume,” one user joked. “Yall are so cringe,” another wrote, “and not in a good way.”
Democrats had long sought Swift’s endorsement, and Harris’ team didn’t waste any time celebrating the announcement. It only took one hour for her team to start selling Swift-inspired friendship bracelets for $20 a piece.
Representatives for Taylor Swift, the Harris-Walz campaign, and the Trump campaign did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s request for comment.
Swift used to stay out of politics, but made her first endorsement during the 2018 primaries and backed President Joe Biden in 2020. This year, she said she was inspired to publicly support Harris partly because Trump shared a fake, AI-generated image of her.
Trump allies were quick to bash Swift for the endorsement, with billionaire Elon Musk taking a jab at her on X. Regardless of the response from the right, both online and spun in cotton, Swift’s endorsement has the potential to mobilize voters, especially in her home state of Pennsylvania.
In her Instagram announcement, Swift included a link to Vote.gov. Within 24 hours, about 406,000 people visited the site.
