Look what Taylor Swift made Todrick Hall do.
One of the more pointed complaints leveled against the polarizing pop star concerns her silence during the presidential election. Swift shared a photo on Election Day encouraging her millions of fans to get out and vote, but she declined to endorse either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton.
Many have interpreted Swiftâs absence from the political discourse as evidence of a pro-Trump stance â but now Todrick Hall, a close friend of Swift who appears in her video for âLook What You Made Me Do,â is speaking out on her behalf.
âYeah, many people have been tweeting me, âShe supports Trump! She probably voted for Trump!â Theyâre making this huge assumption, when Taylor has never to my knowledge come out and said anything about her being pro-Trump,â Hall explained to Yahoo in an interview published Friday. âBut people would still rather believe that she is the one who is pushing Trumpâs agenda. That was one of the major things that was tweeted at me, and Iâm like, âSo you are mad that you think she might support Donald Trump? But youâre not mad that Kanye has been very openly pro-Trump?â I donât understand that.â
Kanye West â at whom Swiftâs new single, âLook What You Made Me Do,â appears to be at least partly directed â supported Trump during the election, even meeting with the then-president-elect in December. The rapper, however, later admitted that he didnât vote and deleted all tweets in support of Trump.
Westâs wife, Kim Kardashian West, has been increasingly outspoken about her distaste for the current president, telling Harperâs Bazaar Arabia that âanyone can run the U.S. better,â including her 4-year-old daughter.
âLook, Iâm not Taylor Swift, so I canât speak for her and why she does or does not choose to speak or not speak about any specific subject matter,â Hall told Yahoo. âAll I know is that she has been nothing but a great person to me. Her family has welcomed me into their home and treated me like I was a member of the family. Theyâve welcomed every single person Iâve ever brought around them. Iâve never felt like there was ever a moment that I couldnât be myself, and talk about the fact that Iâm gay or whatever.â
Although Hall doesnât go as far as to proclaim Swift a âwokeâ pop star, he does hint that she is more progressive than she might appear. The âStraight Outta Ozâ singer recounted watching â13th,â Ava DuVernayâs powerful Netflix documentary about the history of mass incarceration in the United States, with Swiftâs family over the holidays.
âAt Thanksgiving, we all sat around and talked about it, and there was another one of her friends there who was African-American, and we all sat down and talked about racism and watched â13thâ on Netflix and talked about how important it was,â he said. âIt was one of the most beautiful conversations Iâve ever had, because sometimes as an African-American person I feel like I canât voice my opinion about how difficult it is to be not just an African-American person in the entertainment industry, but how scary it is to be black in America, in even 2017.â
To read Hallâs full interview, head over to Yahoo.