Donald Trump is facing criticism online after making a remark about Taylor Swift’s social media standing during an Oval Office chat with reporters, amid continuing tension between the pair.
The relationship between Trump and Swift has been strained for some time, particularly after she endorsed Kamala Harris during the 2024 election cycle and Trump responded with a Truth Social post that read “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!”
Since then, Trump has repeatedly taken aim at the singer. One recent example came on July 4, when the White House shared an image featuring the words ‘Trump is your president’ placed over posters announcing Swift’s marriage to Travis Kelce at Madison Square Garden.
Trump had previously sounded more upbeat about Swift and Kelce’s engagement in August 2025, but his tone has since shifted again.
During remarks made yesterday (July 6), Trump appeared to wrongly suggest that he is ‘by far’ the most-followed person on TikTok.
Before getting onto the subject of TikTok, he spoke about the intelligent people he knows, saying: “I’m a cheerleader for geniuses. I love geniuses. I love high I.Q. people He is a high I.Q. Person. I love high I.Q. People. I speak to Elon [Musk], I speak to Mark [Zuckerberg], I speak to Jeff [Bezos], everybody … At my first inauguration, none of them were standing behind me, they were just the opposite. At the last inauguration, every one of them was standing behind me. It was sort of… amazing. I speak to all of them, and I encourage them. I want them to be tremendously successful.”
He then moved on to discuss TikTok, concerns about the platform’s influence, and where he believed he ranked among its biggest accounts.
“It was announced about two days ago, the new numbers just came out, you know who the number one person in Tic Tac is by far?,” he asked.
Trump continued: “Trump, me. I’m number one… Taylor Swift was number eleven. I’m number one on TikTok by far. The numbers just came out, and I said, ‘Well, I’m hearing about how they influence. They are talking about [how] they’re a tremendous danger because of the influence. If they influence so badly, I’m saying all things like I love our country, we have to stop Communism. We’re doing a lot of things,'”
He followed that by saying: “I’m by far number one. It was sent to me by — the list comes out number one and two. I was number one by a lot.”
But the numbers do not support that claim. Trump’s personal TikTok account has about 16.6 million followers, while Swift’s account has about 33.5 million followers. Swift also remains well ahead of Trump on likes, and Trump does not rank among the platform’s most-followed creators.
Trump launched his personal TikTok account in 2024, while the White House added an official account in August 2025 as the administration continued to emphasize the app’s role in reaching younger voters.
The White House has been contacted for comment.