Fox News host Laura Ingraham has urged pop star Taylor Swift to perform at President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration to make amends for not endorsing him during the November election.
Following the first presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and Trump in September, Swift announced she was endorsing Harris in an Instagram post. The singer has a dedicated fandom of “Swifties”—many of them young women—who were a key demographic in the election.
Unfortunately for Harris voters, Trump won the election and is to be sworn in as president on January 20, 2025, for his second term. During an episode of her show The Ingraham Angle, the TV host suggested that Swift give Trump a call.
Newsweek emailed spokespeople for Swift, Ingraham and Trump for comment on Friday outside of normal business hours.
“The Angle does have some advice for her: call Trump and offer to perform at the inauguration. It would be smart for Taylor Swift and another great moment of unity for the country,” Ingraham said during her show on Thursday.
A video snippet of the comments was uploaded to X (formerly Twitter) by user @Acyn, senior digital editor of MeidasTouch, a Trump-critical news site. At the time of writing, it had been viewed more than 252,000 times. People took to the comments to criticize the idea, with some critical of Trump and others critical of Swift.
“‘It would be smart for Taylor Swift’ is fascist speak for ‘Don’t make us come after you, little missy.’ She won’t do it but how great would it be to see Taylor Swift host a massive concert in DC on Inauguration Day, just to draw *all the attention* away from TFG,” one person wrote. “TFG” is an abbreviation that stands for “The Former Guy,” which gained traction when he lost the 2020 election.
“Trump can only get Kid Rock at this point. Or the Village People (spoofing him). With Kim Guilfoyle as a backup dancer,” someone else wrote, in reference to Trump’s pick for the U.S. Ambassador to Greece.
“After all the billions #TaylorSwift made off her Eras tour, why would she tarnish/sully her brand with such an association? Would be a terrible move on her part,” a different X user commented.
“Trump supporters do not like swift. Hard pass,” said another.
A fifth person added: “Swift does not need advice from Ingraham, especially about her career moves.”
Gareth Cattermole/Oleg Nikishin/TAS24/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management/Getty Images
However, others shared their support for the idea, with one X user writing: “The talented Laura Ingraham just recommended Taylor Swift perform at Trump’s inauguration as a display of unity. I think it’s a great idea.”
“Omg. Laura Ingraham just suggested Taylor Swift should ask to perform at the Innauguration [sic]! Hell Yeah!” said another.
While Ingraham might think Swift performing at the event may be a good idea, there is bad blood between the former president and the singer. A week after Swift endorsed Harris, Trump took to Truth Social to say that he hated the singer, writing in an all-caps: “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!”
Trump’s campaign previously shared artificial intelligence-generated images depicting Swift and her fans as Trump supporters—images Swift cited as a reason for her public endorsement of Harris. She signed the message with “Childless Cat Lady” and included a photograph of herself holding her cat, in an apparent reference to comments that JD Vance, now the vice president-elect, made in 2021 when he described leading Democrats as “a bunch of childless cat ladies.”
In 2020, Swift endorsed President Joe Biden and Harris in the election that saw the duo defeat Trump.
In May of that year, the “Shake It Off” hitmaker took to X to criticize Trump’s posts about Black Lives Matter protesters in Minnesota following the killing of George Floyd, a Black man, by a white police officer. As the protests turned violent, Trump rounded out a post by stating that “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.”
Swift pushed back on the statement, writing: “After stoking the fires of white supremacy and racism your entire presidency, you have the nerve to feign moral superiority before threatening violence? ‘When the looting starts the shooting starts’??? We will vote you out in November. @realdonaldtrump.”
