Ego-bruised Trump insists to aides he's 'more popular' than Taylor Swift: report

Donald Trump's allies are already preparing a "holy war" against pop superstar Taylor Swift if she endorses President Joe Biden.

Sources familiar with the matter told Rolling Stone the former president's loyalists and other allies assume the singer-songwriter will eventually endorse Biden, as she did in 2020, and that likely move infuriates Trump and has already prompted MAGA culture warriors to whip up conspiracy theories about Swift and her NFL star boyfriend Travis Kelce.

"Behind the scenes, Trump has reacted to the possibility of Biden and Swift teaming up against him this year not with alarm, but with an instant projection of ego," two sources told Rolling Stone. "In recent weeks, the former president has told people in his orbit that no amount of A-list celebrity endorsements will save Biden. Trump has also privately claimed that he is 'more popular' than Swift is and that he has more committed fans than she does."

A source close to Trump said the ex-president complained that Swift was selected as Time magazine’s 2023 Person of the Year instead of him, which he reportedly told confidants "obviously" made no sense, and he has been brainstorming with GOP operatives and conservative media figures ways to attack her if she backs Biden.

ALSO READ: Trump goes silent on ‘serious voter fraud’ after long trashing New Hampshire as ‘rigged’

“It would be more fuel thrown on to the culture-war fires,” said an official working on Trump re-election efforts. “Another left-wing celebrity who is part of the Democrat elite telling you what to think.”

Rolling Stone reported that "Trump has been having a popularity contest with Swift in his own head," one of his pollsters told the publication her possible endorsement of Biden would have little impact on the election.

“Since Biden is so weak, they need others to shore up his credibility. Won’t matter [since] his disapproval is driving the race. Voters aren’t fools,” said top Trump pollster John McLaughlin. “Celeb endorsements of Biden are like donating to Nikki Haley. They are a means of virtue signaling. It’s like wearing a medical mask in public after COVID … Celebrities can endorse Biden but it doesn’t lower inflation, stop wars, fix the border, or lower crime. Biden’s job approval still sucks. So Trump is still winning and will win.”