In Taylor Swift‘s reimagining of Shakespeare’s Hamlet on “The Fate of Ophelia,” she takes a few creative liberties to craft a new narrative about soulmates and saviors. She uses one lyric to praise her lover for “pulling me into the fire.”
Now, one of her enemies has done the same — only this batch of flames is more like being tossed into an incinerator than warming up by the fireplace. A new TikTok post from the White House sets “The Fate of Ophelia” to a slideshow of images that show vocal Swift hater Donald Trump celebrating “The Fate of America.”
The chorus of the record, where Swift sings, “Keep it one hundred on the land, the sea, the sky,” is set to photos of army troops pointing guns at a target, a missile blasting off of a ship, and a fighter jet cutting through the clouds. The following line, “Pledge allegiance to your hands, your team, your vibes,” is set to an image of a flag, followed by Trump with J.D. Vance (the team), and a split of their wives, Melania and Usha (the vibes, apparently).
The real kicker comes when Swift sings “Don’t care where the hell you been” over an image of the mugshot Trump took at Atlanta’s Fulton County Jail after he turned himself in on felony charges related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. And that’s only the nine-second mark of the 22-second video. The actual “Fate of America” caption towards the end is set to an image of Trump scooping fries at McDonalds.
“OUR VIBES 🇺🇸,” the caption on the video reads. It has already racked up over 570,000 likes.
Representatives for Swift did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone‘s request for comment.
The Life of a Showgirl song was a curious choice for the Trump administration given his long-running hatred of Swift. Last September, he literally declared, “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!,” on Truth Social. This May, he followed up with, “Has anyone noticed that, since I said ‘I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT,’ she’s no longer ‘HOT?’” And if that wasn’t enough, he used completely unrelated controversy surround Sydney Sweeney to fire off more anti-Swift remarks in August.
“Just look at Woke singer Taylor Swift,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Ever since I alerted the world as to what she was by saying on TRUTH that I can’t stand her (HATE!). She was booed out of the Super Bowl and became, NO LONGER HOT. The tide has seriously turned — Being WOKE is for losers, being Republican is what you want to be.”
Swift, for her part, has criticized Trump in the past, specifically calling out his handling of Black Lives Matter protests, attempts to dismantle the U.S. Postal Service, and reposting AI-generated images of Swift endorsing his presidential run. Swift supported Joe Biden against Trump in the 2020 election and backed Kamala Harris in 2024.
In recent months, the White House has been slammed for their use of popular songs and viral trends in social media uploads. Singer and songwriter Jess Glynne said in July that the Trump Administration jumping on the “Jet2 Holiday” commercial meme — which features her 2015 hit single “Hold My Hand” — to promote U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deportations “makes me sick.” “My music is about love, unity, and spreading positivity,” she said, “never about division or hate.”
