Few things were more inevitable than Donald Trump involving himself in the ongoing Sydney Sweeney jeans-homophone debate. That Trump would deign to get involved in a culture war is nothing new, but he has been especially attuned to just about everything happening on phone all summer. Never mind the jobs market, never mind the myriad wars — everyone is posting and so is Trump. He lit into Gayle King after the New York Post (his favorite read) wrote that the CBS host’s future at the network was in jeopardy. “Gayle King’s career is over. She should have stayed with her belief in TRUMP. She never had the courage to do so. No talent, no ratings, no strength!!!” he wrote on Truth Social on August 4. Whereas Trump’s pop-culture zingers had some liveliness to them — who can forget his updates on the Kristen Stewart–Robert Pattinson saga many years ago — his long-winded nature on Truth Social lacks both a coherence and pop. He’s rambling for rambling’s sake. Maybe the humidity is getting to his brain this summer too.
The CBS host is not the only television-broadcast fixture Trump has been obsessing over, suggesting — perhaps — that he would much rather be a guy who is on TV than a guy who tweets about TV. Trump dug into Charlamagne tha God’s appearance on Lara Trump’s show (and wondered aloud why the radio host is allowed to refer to himself as a god) in addition to his ongoing thoughts on the late-night television landscape. Though he doesn’t take responsibility for the cancellation of Late Night With Stephen Colbert, he was quick to call out Colbert’s “lack of talent” before fixing his gaze on the “less funny” Jimmy Kimmel and the “very insecure” Jimmy Fallon. (Seth Meyers heads — we’re safe for now.)
Though not quite itching for a new album, Trump has also been singularly obsessed with Taylor Swift over the past few months. When he stood up for Sydney Sweeney’s right to promote jeans, Trump also went in on his nemesis, Taylor Swift. “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,” the president wrote a few hours before he posted about King. This was the second time he went in on Swift this summer, reminding people in May about his one-sided feud. “Has anyone noticed that, since I said ‘I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT,’ she’s no longer ‘HOT?’” the president wrote in reference to the time he posted “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT” last fall following her endorsement of Kamala Harris.
That Trump has been singularly focused on pop culture comes at a time when his reputation — and that of his administration — has been under fire due to the mishandling of the Epstein files. Is it possible that the president would tweet about a jeans commercial to distract the populace from ongoing investigations around his alleged involvement with the New York financier? That his posts have only become increasingly unhinged, unedited, and unstoppable might lead one to assume Trump has given up on maintaining any sense of coherence or control over the country he ostensibly runs. There are problems at every level, but as far as he’s concerned, none are as great as the television landscape.
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