I have no inside information about Taylor Swift’s private life or her relationship with her friends. This is just an observation, based on public information and the tumult I observed within my own family.
Some background information — Travis Kelce and Patrick Mahomes are teammates on the NFL Kansas City Chiefs. They are apparently also close friends. Patrick Mahomes is married to Brittany. When Taylor Swift and Kelce began dating, Taylor and Brittany began showing up together in public spaces, especially in the private stadium box where they watched and cheered as their significant others played football throughout last season - in full view of the TV cameras. It seemed Taylor and Brittany were very close.
Then Brittany began making comments and retweets on social media that indicated she was a Trump supporter. Trump even publicly acknowledged her support and thanked her. In my family, that was an outrage. How could Taylor Swift be friends with a MAGA?? Was Taylor Swift changing her well-known political views favoring Biden over Trump? Did the fact that Taylor had been silent about Kamala mean that her socially liberal bona fides were in jeopardy?
There was plenty of outrage on social media about Brittany Mahomes’ support of Trump. To be clear, for the most part, spouses of famous athletes rarely get any media attention. No one cares about the political views of the wife or husband or girlfriend of [pick any famous celebrity here]. Unless you are a Supreme Court justice, of course. But Brittany’s friendship with Taylor made this one newsworthy and amplified the contrast.
The Kansas City opener against the Baltimore Ravens last Thursday featured Taylor alone in the box cheering on her boyfriend. Brittany was nowhere to be seen. That was widely considered a rebuke of Brittany’s offensive behavior. All was well in the heavens.
But then — at Sunday’s US Open men’s tennis final, Taylor and Travis were clearly spotted welcoming Patrick and Brittany into their box above center court. Taylor was even spotted giving Brittany a big hug.
Now, Taylor Swift is well known as being an open and accepting person, who celebrates diversity and enjoys welcoming a spectrum of lifestyles into her inner sanctum. She is especially welcoming if she can leverage her friendship to highlight an injustice. But in Brittany’s case, Taylor’s action was perceived as welcoming someone who had committed an unforgivable sin. Supporting Trump is not a lifestyle choice that is easily overlooked in our divided society. In my household, tempers were raging. How could Taylor support a MAGA? Didn’t she understand the damage she was doing to the country?
My household was not the only place where the hug between Taylor and Brittany was noticed. Social media screamed. How could she? Did Taylor misread the room?? Would she lose fans? Could she ever recover?
For 48 hours, we were all on tenterhooks. What was Taylor thinking? Why was she giving obvious cover to a notorious MAGA? Did she secretly support Donald Trump?
Then came Tuesday’s debate and Taylor’s now viral endorsement of Kamala.
Never mind.
