Donald Trump Takes a Break From Taylor Swift Hate to Praise Her Engagement to Travis Kelce: ‘She’s a Terrific Person’ and ‘I Wish Them a Lot of Luck’

Getty Images

Donald Trump appears to be changing course when it comes to Taylor Swift. A few hours after the music icon announced her engagement to NFL star Travis Kelce, Trump was asked during a cabinet meeting to weigh in on the upcoming nuptials. The U.S. president has been notoriously anti-Swift on social media for months, posting on Truth Social earlier this summer: “Has anyone noticed that, since I said ‘I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT,’ she’s no longer ‘HOT?’” But Trump surprisingly praised Swift amid news of her engagement.

“Well, I wish them a lot of luck,” Trump said. “He’s a great player, and I think he’s a great guy, and I think that she’s a terrific person, so I wish them a lot of luck.”

Popular on Variety

Swift and Kelce announced their engagement in a joint social media post on Instagram. The duo posted celebratory photos alongside the caption: “Your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married.”

Trump has routinely targeted Swift on social media ever since she endorsed Kamala Harris over him during the 2024 presidential election. Swift endorsed Harris for president in September shortly after Harris and Trump’s first presidential debate. At that point, Swift had already called out Trump for previously using a fake image of her to make it appear that she was endorsing him instead. Trump warned that Swift’s music sales would suffer due to her endorsement, although that was not the case.

“Well I actually like Mrs. Mahomes much better. If you want to know the truth. She’s a big Trump fan. I was not a Taylor Swift fan,” Trump said on “Fox & Friends” when asked the morning after about Swift’s endorsement for Harris. “It was only a matter of time. You couldn’t possibly endorse Biden. But she’s a very liberal person. She seems to always endorse a Democrat and she’ll probably pay a price for it in the marketplace. But I like Brittany. Brittany is great. She’s the one I like much better than Taylor Swift. Wife of the great quarterback. I think she’s terrific.”

Brittany Mahomes is married to Patrick Mahomes, the quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs. Patrick is close friends and teammates with Travis Kelce, who is now Swift’s fiancé.

In her endorsement of Kamala Harris, Swift wrote that the former vice president “fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them. I think she is a steady-handed, gifted leader and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos.”

“I will be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 Presidential Election,” Swift continued. “I’m voting for Kamala Harris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them. I think she is a steady-handed, gifted leader and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos. I was so heartened and impressed by her selection of running mate Tim Walz, who has been standing up for LGBTQ+ rights, IVF, and a woman’s right to her own body for decades.”

Trump continued to throw shade at Swift in the following months, including using social media to celebrate the moment Swift was booed at the Super Bowl in February. Trump wrote: “The only one that had a tougher night than the Kansas City Chiefs was Taylor Swift. She got BOOED out of the Stadium. MAGA is very unforgiving!”

Swift and Kelce first went public with their relationship in October 2023. The announcement of their engagement arrived just over a month before the Oct. 3 release of Swift’s 12th studio album, “The Life of a Showgirl.”