A routine end-of-year social media post has unexpectedly placed the White House in an awkward cultural crosscurrent, after Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt's 2025 Spotify Wrapped revealed that Taylor Swift ranked among her top five most-played artists-despite President Donald Trump's long-running and explicit condemnation of the pop star. The disclosure, shared by Leavitt on Instagram, underscored how Swift's influence continues to permeate political circles even as she remains one of Trump's most frequent rhetorical targets.
The annual Spotify Wrapped list, which millions of users post publicly each December, showed Leavitt's listening habits were dominated by country and Christian artists, aligning in part with the cultural preferences of the administration's conservative base. Morgan Wallen appeared as her most-played artist of 2025, followed by Forrest Frank, Brandon Lake and Anne Wilson. But the fifth name-Swift-immediately drew scrutiny given Trump's recent comments. The press secretary's post suggested no attempt to hide the selection, even as it contrasted sharply with her day job defending Trump's broadsides.
The President has intensified his attacks on Swift over the past year, accusing her of political activism harmful to his base and declaring that he "HATE!" her in an all-caps message on Truth Social following her endorsement of Kamala Harris. Trump reignited the feud in August during a defense of actress Sydney Sweeney's American Eagle campaign, writing: "Just look at Woke singer Taylor Swift. 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."
Those remarks drew immediate media attention and placed Leavitt at the podium fielding questions about Trump's fixation. Asked by Fox News' Peter Doocy what the President meant when he said Swift was "no longer hot," Leavitt offered only: "Look, he is speaking about Taylor Swift's political views and how perhaps it has impacted the support of the American public for her work, and I will leave it at that."
Her careful response masked the fact that her own streaming history contradicted Trump's rhetoric. Swift's placement on the press secretary's top artists list suggested that even within the administration's senior ranks, cultural tastes diverge sharply from the President's public posture. While the White House has publicly attacked Swift's political activism for years, her music's reach remains difficult to wall off.
The friction between Trump and Swift dates back to 2018, when the singer broke her long silence on politics by endorsing Democratic candidates in Tennessee, writing that she would "always will cast my vote based on which candidate will protect and fight for the human rights I believe we all deserve in this country." Trump responded at the time: "I'm sure Taylor Swift doesn't know anything about (Marsha Blackburn). Let's say that I like Taylor's music about 25 percent less now."
That percentage dropped to "zero" after Swift endorsed Harris, which triggered a surge in voter registrations and led Trump to escalate his criticism. The revelation that his own press secretary streamed Swift heavily in 2025 adds an unexpected wrinkle to a cultural battle the White House has waged publicly but now finds closer to home.
Leavitt has not commented on the contrast between her personal playlist and the President's public animosity.
