Taylor Swift Removes Her Songs from Trump Campaign Video

Synopsis

U.S. President Donald Trump and global pop star Taylor Swift have once again entered into a feud after the singer refused to let him use her songs for his TikTok posts, removing those songs from his account. This is not the first time that Trump has used a singer’s work without their approval, and it is definitely not the first time that he has stirred up controversy with Swift.

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How did August Slip Away from Trump?

On Monday, August 3, 2026, a video appeared on the official TikTok account of President Donald Trump’s @TeamTrump which showed Donald and Melania Trump watching fireworks with Taylor’s song August from her 2020 album Folklore being played in the background.

It carried the text which read “mood because it’s August and Donald Trump is your president” and was captioned “I’m sure @Taylor Swift is going to be super excited we used her song! #taylorswift #maga #august.”

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On August 8, 2026, Taylor’s team removed her song August, and several other songs from her discography that were used by @TeamTrump’s TikTok account without the singer’s prior approval were also removed.

In the U.S. version of the TikTok app, a message on the video reads, “The copyright owner hasn’t made this sound available in your country” and the clips are now silent. However, some of her songs are still in use on some of the posts.

Red (Donald Trump’s Version)

Another video was posted on @TeamTrump’s account on August 6, 2026, claiming that the singer had written her fourth studio album Red about Republicans. The now-silent video features artwork mimicking the Red album cover, with Trump wearing a red MAGA hat and the words “Red (Donald Trump’s version).”

“Did you know Taylor Swift wrote a whole album about the colour of the Republican Party?” the video asks.

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A Long History of Bad Blood

Taylor Swift and Donald Trump share a long, controversial public back-and-forth since the year 2020, when Swift accused him of "stoking the fires of white supremacy and racism" and urged Americans to vote him out.

The singer publicly endorsed Kamala Harris during the 2024 US presidential election, after which Trump posted, "I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!"

The dispute between the two followed another controversy when, in August 2024, Trump shared AI-generated pictures of Swift and falsely suggested that the singer wants people to vote for him. One image depicted Swift as Uncle Sam alongside a message reading, "Taylor wants you to vote for Donald Trump," as per the outlet.

When asked about the possibility of Taylor Swift suing him over the images, Trump informed the press that he has nothing to be afraid of since those pictures were generated by others.

Will They Ever Find Peace?

While the feud between Taylor Swift and Donald Trump has been going on for years now, it is impossible to predict whether this strain between the two will end anytime soon or whether the White House and Trump will continue to use Taylor’s fame to feed their own.