From Taylor Swift to Beyonce: Celebrities learn their limits with Trump’s re-election

Donald Trump’s stunning triumph Tuesday either sent Kamala Harris’s personage supporters into societal media meltdowns oregon near them trying to articulate their grief and disbelief.

Some pro-Harris stars remained silent, possibly numbed by the realization that 72 cardinal Americans — oregon 51% of voters — didn’t conscionable cull their chosen campaigner but helped to repudiate a content successful celebrities’ powerfulness to power culture, authorities and people’s voting choices.

Cardi B lashed out astatine a instrumentality who said connected Instagram Live that she should look astatine Donald Trump’s 2nd inauguration.

“I curse to deity I’m gonna (expletive) you up, get distant from me,” said  the Grammy-winner rapper who stumped for Harris astatine a rally successful Wisconsin past week.

TOPSHOT – US shaper and histrion Oprah Winfrey (L) holds up US Vice President and Democratic statesmanlike campaigner Kamala Harris’ manus arsenic she get onstage during a run rally connected the Benjamin Franklin Parkway successful Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, connected November 4, 2024. (Photo by ANGELA WEISS / AFP) (Photo by ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)

LeBron James expressed his concerns astir the imaginable menace a 2nd Trump presidency poses to women’s reproductive rights by sharing a photograph of himself with his 10-year-old daughter. The NBA champion said: “HEAVY ON MY HEART & MIND THIS AM MY PRINCESS !! PROMISE TO PROTECT YOU WITH EVERYTHING I HAVE AND MORE!! WE DONT NEED THEIR HELP!”

Billie Eilish echoed that view, saying connected Instagram, “It’s a warfare connected women,” portion Christina Applegate told radical connected X to “unfollow maine if you voted against pistillate rights. Against disablement rights.” Ariana Grande more mildly said, “Holding the manus of each idiosyncratic who is feeling the immeasurable heaviness of this result today.”

HOUSTON, TEXAS – OCTOBER 25: Singers Beyoncé speaks astatine a run rally for Democratic statesmanlike nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, connected October 25, 2024 successful Houston, Texas. Harris is campaigning successful Texas holding a rally supporting reproductive rights with signaling artists Beyoncé and Willie Nelson. (Photo by Jordan Vonderhaar/Getty Images)

Meanwhile, different amusement and sports icons person frankincense acold said thing to their hundreds of millions of fans oregon societal media followers — notably Taylor Swift, who triggered Elon Musk truthful overmuch than helium threatened to impregnate her aft she endorsed Harris successful September with a “childless feline lady” reference. But ditto for Bad Bunny, Beyonce, Oprah Winfrey, Lady Gaga, Jennifer Lopez, George Clooney, Bruce Springsteen and Harrison Ford, who recorded a video, informing voters astir the sedate menace Trump presented to democracy.

With Harris’ ascension to the apical of the Democratic summons successful July, her run became a magnet for celebrities and she became the “coolest happening successful popular culture,” as she fought erstwhile President Trump, different personage from his days arsenic a world TV prima and a New York City tabloid figure.

Harris’ run expected that endorsements from stars with Gen-Z entreaty could assistance the erstwhile San Francisco District Attorney, California Attorney General and US Senator merchantability her candidacy to  stars’ youthful fans, particularly to young women who could beryllium excited astir the imaginable of electing the archetypal pistillate president.

US singer-songwriter Lady Gaga performs during a run rally with US Vice President and Democratic statesmanlike campaigner Kamala Harris connected the Benjamin Franklin Parkway successful Philadelphia, Pennsylvania connected November 4, 2024. (Photo by ANGELA WEISS / AFP) (Photo by ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)

But successful the post-election autopsy of Harris’ defeat, writers and governmental experts spoke astir the conflicting ideas astir the relation of personage successful statesmanlike authorities — whether it’s utile for candidates to beryllium celebrities themselves oregon to beryllium capable to wrapper themselves successful the glow of their personage associations.

Margaretha Bentley, a prof astatine Arizona State University whose classes person studied the societal value of Swift, was quoted successful The Guardian arsenic saying: “In world literature, probe has shown that, portion personage endorsements tin summation civic engagement and elector registrations, it has not proven to person a nonstop interaction connected however radical marque their voting decisions.”

Seth Abramovitch, a elder writer astatine the Hollywood Reporter, suggested to The Guardian that Harris’ endorsements didn’t assistance her widen her enactment due to the fact that they came from celebrities who were preaching to the choir: “Oprah, Katy Perry, Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Madonna, Ariana Grande — these are artists whose audiences (black, female, liberal, queer) were already inclined to ballot for Kamala,” Abramovitch said.

Abramovitch explained however Swift could person been an objection to this regularisation due to the fact that her vocation successful some state and popular euphony gives her fans connected some sides of the American governmental divide. Her romance with Travis Kelce besides whitethorn person brought her caller fans from NFL world.

“Yet I’d reason her monolithic power does not scope 2 cardinal demographic groups that helped Trump triumph this clip – Latinos and achromatic men,” Abramovitch said.

But much than underperforming with Latinos and Black men, Harris besides underperformed with “almost each benignant of young person,” wrote Peter Hamby successful Puck.

“Despite the Brat Summer hype, each the clever and demure posts from KamalaHQ, and the committedness of generational change, successful the extremity it turned retired that Gen Z wasn’t precise funny successful Kamala Harris,” Hamby said.

Harris underperformed connected 81-year-old Joe Biden’s 2020 numbers with young voters. “Plenty of students” told Hamby that, yes, they couldn’t basal Trump, a convicted felon and alleged insurrectionist who built a governmental conjugation by stoking conspiracy theories and fearfulness on the lines of race, gender, religion and transgender identity.

But students besides told Hamby that they didn’t person overmuch affinity for the Democratic Party. As they’ve travel of age, the enactment has been led by aging and “scripted” Boomers similar Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer who haven’t made it easier.

“Barack Obama is simply a fading memory. Bernie Sanders a mislaid cause, a curdled meme,” Hamby wrote. Along with Lopez, Harris’ different personage supporters included John Legend, Katy Perry and Eminem, who are associated with the Obama years, “when Democrats really had taste credibility, erstwhile millennials were the tastemakers,” Hamby said. “Those days are nary more.”

It besides appears that “the days are nary more” erstwhile the American nationalist needfully holds celebrities successful precocious regard. There has been a concerted effort by the Republican Party to deride the astir fashionable celebrities arsenic wealthy, wide elites who don’t recognize the concerns of regular people, with Beyonce’s beingness astir apt not affected by the terms of state oregon the inability to bargain a archetypal home, arsenic New York University arts prof Laurence F. Maslon told the The Guardian.

Indeed, Maslon said that endorsements astir apt bash “more for the personage than the idiosyncratic being endorsed.” He added: “It‘s a mode to hitch your prima to idiosyncratic who seems to beryllium bully for you, and possibly there’s a definite benignant of reflected glory successful that.”

Data besides emerged successful precocious October that suggests that Harris’ personage endorsements could really person wounded her campaign. A YouGov poll showed that Swift’s endorsement lone made astir 8% of voters “somewhat” oregon “much much likely” to ballot for Harris, portion 20% said that endorsement would marque them little apt to ballot for her.

The decision of the canvass is that galore Americans deliberation celebrities should enactment retired of politics, YouGov said  — an thought successful enactment with assertions made by the New York Times’ Peter Baker. Yes, Trump, accused of intersexual misconduct by much than 2 twelve women, led a testosterone-driven run that capitalized connected absorption to electing the archetypal pistillate president.

But Trump’s comeback triumph besides was fueled “by populist disenchantment with the nation’s absorption and resentment against elites,” Baker wrote.

The elites, of course, see America’s biggest stars successful movies, TV, sports and music. This resentment was good illustrated erstwhile the 47th president-elect responded to Swift’s Harris endorsement by announcing, “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT.”