Taylor Swift took aim at Donald Trump in a series of tweets on Saturday, claiming that the president is trying to “blatantly cheat” the election by trying to dismantle the U.S. Postal Service.
Following up on the president’s controversial statements this week regarding funding for the agency and his repeated attacks on mail-in voting, Swift accused Trump of trying to interfere with the right to vote for Americans.
“Trump’s calculated dismantling of USPS proves one thing clearly: He is WELL AWARE that we do not want him as our president,” she wrote. “He’s chosen to blatantly cheat and put millions of Americans’ lives at risk in an effort to hold on to power.”
The singer then gave advice for people to request a ballot and vote early, appearing to follow a warning from the postal service to 46 states and the District of Columbia that it could not guarantee all ballots mailed for November’s election would arrive in time to be counted.
As the Washington Post noted, this warning came amid a massive internal overhaul at the agency, with cost-cutting moves that have delayed mail delivery by up to a week in some places. Viral photos this week have shown the postal service collecting mailboxes to be decommissioned, and the report noted that a recent decision took 10 percent of the agency’s sorting machines out of commission.
Critics have taken aim at Trump, who has expressed his disdain for attempts to expand mail-in voting and made what critics say are unfounded claims that this is ripe for fraud.
The report added that some states are anticipating up to 10 times the normal volume of election mail this year as many voters look to stay home and avoid polling places, where the risk of spreading coronavirus may be higher.
Swift’s sharp statements against Trump came amid growing political activism by the 30-year-old. The Hill noted that she was long silent on her political views throughout her early career, prompting speculation among some that she may have been a Trump supporter. But she broke this silence during the 2018 midterm elections to support Democratic candidates in her home state of Tennessee.
Swift has since launched a number of other attacks against Trump, including accusing him in May of “stoking the fires of white supremacy and racism” after his critical comments about the nationwide protests that arose in the wake of George Floyd’s killing in Minneapolis.
