Taylor Swift took to Twitter on Friday to add her voice to the chorus of people putting Donald Trump on notice.
“After stoking the fires of white supremacy and racism your entire presidency, you have the nerve to feign moral superiority before threatening violence?” Swift tweeted. “‘When the looting starts the shooting starts’??? We will vote you out in November. @realdonaldtrump.”
In her message, Taylor quoted a tweet Trump posted on Thursday, which came in two parts.
“I can’t stand back & watch this happen to a great American City, Minneapolis. A total lack of leadership. Either the very weak Radical Left Mayor, Jacob Frey, get his act together and bring the City under control, or I will send in the National Guard & get the job done right.....,” Trump wrote. “....These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won’t let that happen. Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!”
Trump’s comments arrived after protests broke out in Minneapolis, which began following the tragic murder of George Floyd at the hands of police and the state's failure to properly punish the cops responsible.
Trump’s tweets also include a warning about “glorifying violence” which was added by the social media platform. The warning continues, “However, Twitter has determined that it may be in the public's interest for the tweet to remain accessible.”
Twitter reacted positively to Swift’s message, with many showing overwhelming support for the singer.
Swift has been known for her lack of political activism. In an interview with the Guardian from last year, she opened up about why she’s maintained an apolitical front, explaining that becoming a country artist at a young age caused her to avoid politics as much as possible.
“I come from country music,” she said. “The number one thing they absolutely drill into you as a country artist, and you can ask any other country artist this, is ‘Don’t be like the Dixie Chicks!’”
Barack Obama also shared his own statement on Friday regarding Floyd’s murder.
“It’s natural to wish for life ‘to just get back to normal’ as a pandemic and economic crisis upend everything around us,” Obama wrote. “But we have to remember that for millions of Americans, being treated differently on account of race is tragically, painfully, maddeningly ‘normal’—whether it’s while dealing with the health care system, or interacting with the criminal justice system, or jogging down the street, or just watching birds in the park.”
The former President continued, “This shouldn’t be ‘normal’ in 2020 America. It can’t be ‘normal.’ If we want our children to grow up in a nation that lives up to its highest ideals, we can and must do better.”
