Taylor Swift MAGA Nazi Scandal, What Really Happened, & Today’s News
PDS Published 12/10/2025
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Over the past 24-to-48 hours, Donald Trump has been crashing out over and over — three times, by my count.
Speaking of which, if you still haven’t experienced the wonders of the Crashing Out podcast with me and Alex Pearlman, what’s wrong with you? [B roll, 00:26]
Either come join us where all the fun is, or go get your head checked for brain worms.
Anyway, back to Trump, his crashing out started with this interview he gave to Politico Monday, though it only went up yesterday. [Lead B roll into clip]
And there’s a couple moments I want to highlight, the first being this testy exchange about the Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro. [Lead B roll into clip]
[Clip, 22:23 - 22:50] Caption: [Dasha Burns:] “So how far would you go to take Maduro out of office?” [Donald Trump:] “I don’t want to say that, but …” [Dasha Burns:] “But you want to see him out?” [Donald Trump:] “His days are numbered.” [Dasha Burns:] “Can you rule out an American ground invasion?” [Donald Trump:] “I don’t want to rule in or out. I don’t talk about it. Why would I talk to you, an extremely unfriendly publication, if you want to call it Politico, that got eight million dollars from Obama to keep it afloat?”
And then the second moment coming when the interviewer asked him about the state of the American economy.
[Clip, 32:58 - 33:05] Caption: [Dasha Burns:] “I wonder what grade you would give your economy?” [Donald Trump:] “A plus.” [Dasha Burns:] A plus?” [Donald Trump:] “A plus plus plus plus plus.”
Now of course, that’s at odds with the virtual consensus among relevant experts, who point to rising prices, poor job numbers, and a turbulent stock market as indicators that Trump’s policies, and especially his tariffs, are not working.
And recently Republicans have suffered electoral losses in several states and cities — hell, even just yesterday Miami elected its first Democratic mayor in three decades.
All of which is why, according to The Wall Street Journal, White House aides have been trying to get Trump to refocus his attention on affordability and start taking people’s concerns seriously. [Headline]
With them reportedly showing him surveys from his own pollsters, social media posts from discontented voters, anything that might persuade him. [Quote same link, find “pollsters”]
Right, as the Journal put it, “almost every senior White House official is involved in the effort.” [Same quote]
But despite weeks of being pushed and prodded, Trump has resisted any “I feel your pain” messaging, opting to believe that the affordability discourse is a Democratic trap.
And that’s exactly the point he hammered down at his rally in Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania yesterday. [Lead B roll into clip]
Right, because reportedly his aides have organized a tour across the country that’ll focus on the economy and stretch into early next year, and it began last night. [Lead B roll into clip]
[Clip, 18:31 - 18:36; Clip, 45:00 - 45:08; Clip, 15:38 - 15:43; Clip, 18:01 - 18:19] Caption: “They have a new word. You know, they always have a hoax. The new word is ‘affordability.’ … They say ‘affordability’ and everyone says ‘oh, that must mean Trump has high prices.’ No. … They caused the high prices, and we’re bringing them down. It’s a simple message. … Lower prices, bigger paychecks. We’re getting, inflation, we’re crushing it. And you’re getting much higher wages. I mean the only thing that’s really going up big, it’s called the stock market and your 401Ks. It’s going up.”
So we’ll have to see if simply repeating that message over and over again for the next 10 months will make a dent in public sentiment before the midterms. [Continue B roll]
But also, Trump frequently veered off course, as he usually does during these speeches, into various non-economic topics.
With him claiming the past three elections were rigged, talking about how tariff is his favorite word, crusading against windmills, and whatever this is …
[Clip, 26:27 - 26:34] Caption: “Transgender for every member in your family. If they’re not feeling well that night, let’s just change their sex.”
[Clip, 24:57 - 25:00, 25:20 - 25:27] Caption: “Which is better, sleepy Joe or crooked Joe? … Typically, crooked Joe wins. I’m surprised, because to me he’s a sleepy son of a bitch.”
[Clip, 30:36 - 30:42] Caption: [Donald Trump:] “I’m being judged by these bad people back there, the fake news.” [Crowd:] *Booing*
And then, in one of the more shocking moments of his speech, he took aim at one of the right-wing’s favorite targets of late: Somali immigrants.
[Clip, 26:59 - 27:04, 27:18 - 28:04, 28:24 - 28:33] Caption: “Do we have any individuals from Somalia in the group? Please raise your hand. … I love this ee-lon] [Ilhan] Omar, whatever the hell her name is, with the little turban. I love her. She comes in, does nothing but bitch. She’s always complaining. She comes from her country where, I mean, it’s considered about the worst country in the world, right? They have no military. They have no nothing. They have no parliament. They don’t know what the hell the word ‘parliament’ means. They have nothing. They have no police. They police themselves. They kill each other all the time. I love it. She comes to our country, and she’s always complaining about ‘the Constitution allows me to do this.’ We ought to get her the hell out. She married her brother in order to get in, right? … She married her brother to get in, therefore she’s here illegally. She should get the hell out. Throw her the hell out. She does nothing but complain.”
So yeah, you know, just the president calling for a sitting Congresswoman, a U.S. citizen, to be deported.
And after he said that, the crowd broke out into chants of “Send her back! Send her back!”
With Trump then going on for another hour before finally wrapping it up and going home.
Meanwhile, Ilhan — not Elon — Omar responded to the callout on Bluesky, writing:
“Trump’s obsession with me is beyond weird. He needs serious help. Since he has no economic policies to tout, he’s resorting to regurgitating bigoted lies instead. He continues to be a national embarrassment.” [Post]
But then, instead of getting some rest after a long day, Trump continued his crashout on Truth Social.
With him apparently getting triggered by this New York Times op-ed that talks about his personal health, highlights the cabinet meeting where he apparently fell asleep and writes:
“Just how run-down must a raging narcissist be to snooze through tributes to his own greatness?” [Quote]
“Are Trump’s baffling non sequiturs, herky-jerky syntax and fantastical misrepresentations of fact just a wholly unleashed, fully emboldened version of who he has always been, or is his focus blurring? What was up with his swollen ankles and the discoloration, partly concealed by makeup, on the back of one of his hands? And how to solve the mystery of the M.R.I. that he had at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in October?” [Quote same link]
So in response to that, our president composed a nearly 500-word essay which he posted to Truth Social, and buckle up for this one, because it’s a bumpy ride.
“There has never been a President that has worked as hard as me! My hours are the longest, and my results are among the best. I’ve stopped Eight Wars, saving many millions of lives in the process, created the Greatest Economy in the History of our Country, brought Business back into the United States at levels never seen before, rebuilt our Military, created the Largest Tax Cuts and Regulation Cuts, EVER, closed our open and very dangerous Southern Border, when previous Administrations were unable to do so, and created an “aura” around the United States of America that has led every Country in the World to respect us more than ever before. In addition to all of that, I go out of my way to do long, thorough, and very boring Medical Examinations at the Great Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, seen and supervised by top doctors, all of whom have given me PERFECT Marks — Some have even said they have never seen such Strong Results. I do these Tests because I owe it to our Country. In addition to the Medical, I have done something that no other President has done, on three separate occasions, the last one being recently, by taking what is known as a Cognitive Examination, something which few people would be able to do very well, including those working at The New York Times, and I ACED all three of them in front of large numbers of doctors and experts, most of whom I do not know. I have been told that few people have been able to “ace” this Examination and, in fact, most do very poorly, which is why many other Presidents have decided not to take it at all. Despite all of this, the time and work involved, The New York Times, and some others, like to pretend that I am “slowing up,” am maybe not as sharp as I once was, or am in poor physical health, knowing that it is not true, and knowing that I work very hard, probably harder than I have ever worked before. I will know when I am “slowing up,” but it’s not now! After all of the work I have done with Medical Exams, Cognitive Exams, and everything else, I actually believe it’s seditious, perhaps even treasonous, for The New York Times, and others, to consistently do FAKE reports in order to libel and demean “THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.” They are true Enemies of the People, and we should do something about it. They have inaccurately reported on all of my Election Results and, in fact, were forced to apologize on much of what they wrote. The best thing that could happen to this Country would be if The New York Times would cease publication because they are a horrible, biased, and untruthful “source” of information.” [Post]
After that, Trump posted several screenshots of people praising him, promoted Charlie Kirk’s book, then, for good measure, retruthed his own truth about the treasonous New York Times before finally signing off.
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That is what social media was shouting just two months ago when her new album came out, but it turns out, those false claims may have been part of a coordinated attack.
Right, if you were online at all in the first two weeks of October, you know there was a ton of discourse about The Life of a Showgirl, and some of it was just your usual pop music criticism.
But some of it was much more extreme, with people accusing Taylor of being MAGA.
Right, in a song about her fiance Travis Kelce, she says she wants to have a couple kids and have “the whole block looking like you,” and people tried to say she was pushing a trad-wife, white supremacist agenda.
When she sold lightning bolt necklaces as a nod to a line in her song “Opalite,” people compared it to nazi imagery.
Just tons of takes flying left and right, it was largely framed as a far-left critique of Taylor, and it just got tons of attention and spread all across the internet.
So the behavioral intelligence firm GUDEA looked at over 20,000 posts about the album from over 14 social platforms, and found: []
“a polarized online environment shaped by a mixture of organic cultural discourse, symbolic reinterpretation, and targeted inauthentic activity.”
And that “inauthentic” activity ended up being the subject of their report, which found that while most social users behaved normally, 3.7% did not, and they accounted for 28% of the conversation volume, which suggests “coordinated influence.”
A lot of the conversations started on more fringe platforms, like 4chan and KiwiFarms, before they made their way to more mainstream apps like Twitter and TikTok.[]
And once they made their way there, Swifties and normal users began seeing them and responding, right.
With the report saying:[]
“This demonstrates how a strategically seeded falsehood can convert into widespread authentic discourse, reshaping public perception even when most users do not believe the originating claim.”
Right, because once everyday people began seeing these posts, some agreed and propped up the accusations.
But tons also slammed them and created a massive backlash cycle, arguing these seemingly left-wing accounts had lost the plot, saying things like:
“what do you mean her wanting her children to look like her fiancé is…eugenics?!”[]
“Making bad-faith, wildly unfounded sociopolitical TikTok critiques of a pop album is such a profoundly misguided use of political energy right now.”[]
“pushing an agenda that a woman who has never done anything but support left wing movements and ideologies as a white supremacist is one of the reasons trump won.”[]
But that actually just helped the claims spread, right, these users did not know they were engaging in an intentionally fabricated discourse.
And the outrage cycle just boosted these networks and their narratives.
So you had the CEO of the company behind the study telling Rolling Stone:
“That’s part of the goal for these types of narratives, for whoever is pushing them. Especially with these inflammatory ones — that’s going to get rewarded by the algorithm.”[]
The report was not able to identify exactly who is behind this, but it did find a “significant user overlap” between accounts trying to paint Taylor as a nazi, and accounts that participated in attacks against Blake Lively.
And as for what these networks might gain from this, well, because we don’t know who is behind it, we can’t quite know their motives.
But one of the researchers told Rolling Stone that at least when you look at the bigger picture of internet bad actors, you can see why an attack campaign like this is effective, explaining:
“When we put our doomsday hat on, I think we can see that reality, that there might be other nefarious actors, not U.S.-based, who have reasons to see, ‘If I can move the fan base for Taylor Swift — an icon who is this political figure, in a way — does that mean I can do it in other places?’”
So far, no one from Taylor’s team has responded to this report, but it has gotten a ton of attention online, where people are saying things like:
“cant tell what’s worse: the fact it was intentionally orchestrated OR that it worked bc many people were unable to think critically & form an opinion outside of viral posts.”[]
But of course, you also have some people who don’t believe the report, who believe maligned celebrities are just paying news outlets to publish fake reports claiming criticism of them is just bot attacks.[][]
So I would love to know your thoughts, especially if you were a Swiftie, or if you just came across this discourse yourself and engaged with it.
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Companies need to stop using AI.
That’s what consumers are clearly signaling after multiple companies faced major backlash for their use of AI.
The most recent is McDonald’s which released this ad: (0:00-0:20)
Alright, that’s enough of that, but it’s about another 30 seconds.
Comments for the ad were turned off, but the general feeling was along the lines of:
“The song is poorly written, almost certainly written by AI because it doesn’t fit the original rhythm at all and at the end it just makes up a passage.
The visuals are pointless, because it’s just random nonsense like most AI videos. There’s no weight to anything, despite the focus being human “failures.” They’re not shot well, and more so not “real,” so it leaves no impact.” []
There’s was also possibly even more outrage that the message of the entire thing was “fuck the holidays, eat McDonald’s.”
Either way, the backlash was so bad that McDonald’s took down the ad.
However, the company behind it tried to defend it, saying in a post that they spent weeks working on this and that:
“We were working right on the edge of what this tech can do. And while AI filmmaking might divide opinions, we want to pull back the curtain to show you the sheer human craft and scale behind it. The tools were different. The process wasn’t.”
This isn’t the first AI faux pas though.
Amazon recently had to take down an entire program to add dubs to anime, squarely putting itself in the middle of the space’s eternal fight over subs vs. dubs.
And the results left a lot to be desired, resulting in stuff like:
[@0:12-0:19] and [@0:32-0:39]
Going even further back, Disney had abandoned attempts to add more AI into its workflow over concerns about copyright and public perception.
But now CEO Bob igor is considering it again, despite example after example of people just not being that into AI.
Now to be clear, not everyone is against it.
Tons of people praised the McDonald’s ad and claimed that it would be perfectly fine on TV.
And if you're a fan of YouTube this may not be something you can avoid.
That’s because the platform is rolling out more AI creation tools.
Most of these are for verticals and let users harness AI to create videos from their raw footage, rather than editing it themselves.
So what do you think?
Is it bad because it still has an uncanny valley effect?
Or are there more fundamental objections?
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The Trump administration is planning to review the social media accounts of foreign tourists from dozens of countries as a requirement for granting them entry to the U.S. — even though the targeted groups don’t need visas.
Right, that plan was outlined in a new proposal filed in the Federal Register by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
With the CBP saying it will allow a 60-day period for public comment.
And specifically, the proposal targets foreign tourists who are eligible for the Visa Waiver Program, which allows people from 42 countries to travel to the U.S. for up to 90 consecutive days without a visa, provided they get electronic authorization.
And those 42 countries that are part of the Visa Waiver Program — which include most of Europe — they compose a TON of U.S. tourism
Right, Visa Waiver Program nations account for more than half of the top-20 nations whose citizens visit the U.S. the most.
With that notably including the U.K. — which is the third biggest tourist of the U.S. after Canada and Mexico — as well as Japan, Germany, France, and South Korea, which all rank among the top 10.
And that’s likely in part because, at least until now, it’s been relatively easy for the residents of those countries to visit the U.S.
Right, under the current system, tourists from those countries are required to apply through the Electronic System for Travel Authorization — or ESTA.
And during that process, they pay $40, provide some basic identifying information, and once approved, the authorization is generally valid for two years and allows the applicants to enter multiple times during that period.
But, under the Trump administration’s new proposal, ESTA applications would be required to, quote: “provide their social media from the last 5 years.”
Now, very notably here, the current proposal doesn’t give any more information than that on this front — like, oh, I don’t know, how the fuck people are supposed to provide the U.S. government with five years of social media?
Are they asking for people to link any accounts they’ve used in the last five years? Do they want a PDF with five years' worth of tweets? What qualifies as “social media” under this plan? You know… minor details.
It’s also totally unclear exactly how they plan to review these massive troves of data.
And that’s also really notable because the social media review isn’t the only new, dramatic information request outlined in this proposal — though it’s certainly the most significant.
Right, ESTA applications would also have to provide TONS of other sensitive information, including:
Phone numbers used in the past five years and email addresses used in the past 10.
IP addresses and metadata from electronically submitted photos.
And key biometrics like facial, fingerprint, DNA, and iris data.
Beyond that, they’d also be required to provide a ton of hyperspecific personal information about their family members and spouses.
This including their names and birthdays, phone numbers and email addresses, and even where the family members were born and their current residencies.
And while this proposal is being open to public and thus subject to change, experts say it could have a dramatic impact on tourism in the U.S.
Right, for one, this would be an enormous amount of information to sift through, which could result in longer wait times for travelers to get authorization.
You also had immigration and digital rights attorneys arguing that the proposal could chill free speech, exacerbate civil liberties harms, and undermine travel, with one explaining:
“Basically, people will self-censor, and they avoid coming to the U.S. altogether, and that affects tourism, business and America’s global reputation.”
And while this move has been described as a major “paradigm shift” in current tourism policy, it’s also not surprising at all.
Right, the Trump administration has already enacted very similar requirements on other visa categories.
Back in 2019, during his first term, Trump implemented a rule requiring all immigrant and non-immigrant visa applicants to disclose their social media accounts.
And just this past June, his administration mandated that all student visa applicants must have their social media accounts set to public — a rule that is also set to take effect soon for H-1B high-skilled worker visa applicants.
But this latest proposal is still markedly different because it applies to people who don’t even need to get a visa to visit the U.S. on a temporary basis.
But for now, we’ll have to see if and how the proposal changes, and how it will impact America’s tourist economy when it takes effect — and it could be pretty major.
Go to Brain.fm to get 30 days of free access to science-backed music that really works.
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Republican leaders are giving everyone whiplash over whether they want an investigation or not into the alleged war crimes the US might be committing in the Caribbean.
Right, Rep. Mike Rogers -- who is the head of the House Armed Services Committee -- just told reporters yesterday that an investigation wouldn’t because “It’s done. I’ve got all the answers I needed.”
But just last month he promised Rep. Adam Smith that there would be “rigorous oversight” over the so-called “double-tap” missile strike that happened on Sept 2nd and that: [image of boat]
“We take seriously the reports of follow-on strikes on boats alleged to be ferrying narcotics in the SOUTHCOM region and are taking bipartisan action to gather a full accounting of the operation in question,”
Here’s the thing… it really doesn’t look like there was “rigorous oversight.”
All that really happened was a classified meeting between the House and Senate Armed Services and Intelligence panels alongside SOUTHCOM leader Admiral Frank Bradley.
In addition to that, committee members got to see the footage of what happened, but that hasn’t really helped much.
That’s because there are drastically different views over what it shows.
Rogers doesn’t think it’s a big deal.
And Senator Tom Cotton agrees that the video lines up with the Trump Administration's narrative.
You know, that the strike on shipwrecked survivors was justified because they were allegedly still capable of carrying on.
But across the aisle there are figures like Rep. Jim Himes, who is on the committee and thinks the footage clearly shows something wrong happened.
Himes was actually concerned not only that we might have some serious crimes on our hands, but that Congress as a whole wasn’t really being involved in any of these decisions:
“And also, again. You don’t need to spend a ton of time in law school to know that Congress should debate and authorize this kind of action. It says so in the constitution… and as you just articulated, killing people without any due process, without super well-vetted intelligence processes… at a minimum that should be debated by the Congress…
Right, if it’s not a legitimate war then it becomes a legal issue. A law enforcement issue. If a cop walked up in NYC and shot a drug dealer on the street that cop would be tried, convicted, and go to jail. Which is one possible analogy for what’s happening here. [if it’s not a legit military action then yes it’s murder. If it is then this is a violation of the laws of war].” @15:37-16:55
He’s not the only one, and despite some Republican leaders trying to say the footage shows the strikes were justified, there are a lot of House members who want to see it for themselves.
It’s why they added a provision to the upcoming Defense Spending Bill that would compel Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to release the exact orders given and the footage, unedited, to Congress or face a 25% cut to his travel budget.
Normally Defense Spending Bills aren’t worth talking about because they’re fairly routine, but this one actually stands out.
In many ways it’s fairly pro-Trump, with House Speaker Mike Johnson praising the bill because it “...helps advance President Trump and Republicans’ Peace Through Strength Agenda by codifying 15 of President Trump’s executive orders, ending woke ideology at the Pentagon, securing the border, revitalizing the defense industrial base, and restoring the warrior ethos.”
Things to end “woke ideology” include cutting DEI and climate initiatives.
But at the same time it’s not a completely pro-Trump wishlist.
I’m not even referring to the provision lawmakers just added, but things like authorizing billions more in defense spending than Trump wanted.
(remember, he’s trying to at least look like he’s cutting spending).
Right, because Congressionally authorized funds are supposed to actually go where they’re allocated, regardless of what the President wants.
Trump was even impeached for withholding funds from Ukraine once… although with the current Supreme Court I’m sure they’ll do some mental gymnastics to say Trump can do it.
Either way, the spending bill is expected to pass without much issue.
Trump hasn’t said whether he’d sign it or not, but it’s rare for a president to veto a spending bill.
Obviously the climate is MUCH different now than eight years ago, so who knows what will happen.
But the biggest question that stands out is whether a 25% budget cut to Hegseth will actually be enough to get him to release the footage.
Or is it just performative?
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But then finally today, the last thing is part Philip
DeFranco show, part palate cleanser.
Because this week on the text line (813) 213-4423 go text me there.
As well as on social media and in comments.
There were a lot of people saying, what did you think about Donald Trump
saying that American football is not real football, right.
Actually, today on my other podcast, crashing out with myself
and Alex Pearlman, which went out this morning,
and you can watch the full thing in the links below.
You know, we covered it, and I think it actually gave us
a little bit of insight here.
You don't feel I don't want to go into the if Biden did this or if Obama did this,
that they would spend
the media would spend the rest of the year talking about it,
even though we don't have much left in the year.
But the one thing that did happen
during the Trump FIFA Peace Prize moment is he had a whole little speech
he gave about how the NFL shouldn't call itself football.
And that actually, when you look at it,
soccer's the real football because all they use his feet.
So that's why they should be.
And it was there was a moment there where I actually I actually got my
my back went up, my hackles got hacked,
I got full on, I just started screaming, what are you talking about?
Like at the screen.
What are your thoughts on this? What are your thoughts on on.
We're done with soccer. It's
now football and the NFL needs to call I guess the National Concussion League.
The NHL is maybe what we should go with.
I, I was surprised he said it, but also not because it's like anytime
we get into a moment where someone's, like, awarding him with something,
I think we get to see a little bit of what Donald Trump is like behind the scenes,
where everyone's like, oh, he's so like, he's so open and he's like so cordial,
and he's actually a great guy to be with where he justthey gave him an an award
and he's like, football is not real or the NFL is not real.
I'm gonna I'm gonna talk about hand handing.
Saquon Barkley who I've never.
Heard of him I hate Saquon Barkley.
Now I'm a Ronaldo guy.
Like instantly instantly. It was so crazy.
That my friends is where today's show and this video ends.
But you've got more even just a click away.
You can check out my brand new award winning podcast Crashing Out with myself
and Alex Pearlman.
The new episode actually just went up right before
this show is available on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts.
And or if you miss yesterday's crazy Philip
DeFranco show, I got you covered right here, as always.
There's also links in the description, but hey,
no matter what you do, let me just say thank you for watching.
I love yo faces and I'll see you right back here tomorrow.
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