A former White House official claims that there was an unofficial ban on playing Taylor Swift during the Donald Trump administration.
Speaking to MSNBC’s Chris Hayes, former homeland security, counterterrorism, and coronavirus advisor Oliva Troye recounted the “obsessive, paranoid, quasi-authoritarian” culture at Trump’s White House.
During the interview, Troye shared an anecdote that revealed an unofficial Taylor Swift ban that had been put on The White House.
So it goes, following a disagreement with a colleague during a particularly heated meeting, Troye went to her office to calm her nerves through the rejuvenating practice of listening to Taylor Swift (we’ve all been there, babe.)
According to Troye, her listening party was interrupted by a male colleague, who knocked on the door asking, “‘Are you trying to get fired?'”
She recalled being confused by the question, wondering if the warning was in reference to the way she behaved in the meeting. As it happens, it was her appetite for perfectly written pop-country songs that put her job at risk of landing on the chopping block.
“I don’t think she’s a fan of Trump’s,” Troye recalls her colleague said of Swift, who endorsed President Joe Biden during the election. “And so, if somebody hears that, you should really watch your back. You should be careful on that.”
Love Pop?
Get the latest Pop news, features, updates and giveaways straight to your inbox Learn more
Ahead of the 2020 election, Swift, who had kept her politics close to her chest until the 2018 midterms, explicitly condemned Donald Trump on Twitter, writing: “We will vote you out in November.”
Troye said she was “astonished” by the interaction, and that she could “listen to whatever music” she wanted to.
According to a report from The Atlantic, a similar incident took place after an unidentified staffer liked one of Swift’s Instagram posts encouraging her followers to vote whilst holding a tray of cookies embellished with Biden-Harris icing. The writer recalls Trump’s chief of staff getting a call after he’d requested information the staffer, saying, “We really can’t have our people liking posts promoting Joe Biden.”
“This is sort of how this White House was run,” Troye said of the White House culture. “And that is what I fear for the future of our country.”
