Donald Trump has a ranking in mind for TikTok, and Taylor Swift is not near the top of it. At a midterm campaign rally in Bullhead City, Arizona, on Wednesday, October 14, the president told supporters he is the most popular account on the platform, and that the most famous pop star in the world sits well below him.
“You know who number one on TikTok is? Trump,” he said, according to Mediaite’s report of the speech. “Taylor Swift is 19. I’m number one.” CBS News carried the same quote, adding that Trump also told the crowd, “Can you believe this?”
It is the second time this year he has made the claim, and her supposed position has slipped eight places in the telling.
The rally and the numbers
The event was held at Bullhead International Airport on the Colorado River, a week into early voting, with Trump scheduled to speak at 1 p.m. local time, according to KTAR News. Gubernatorial candidate Andy Biggs and Rep. Paul Gosar were among the Republicans on the bill ahead of the November 3 election.
The TikTok remark arrived in the middle of a riff about deals. Trump said he had “made $72 billion on TikTok,” then later put the figure at “$10 billion on TikTok for our country,” a reference to the fee his administration received for brokering the spin-off of TikTok’s U.S. operations to a group led by Larry and David Ellison, as Mediaite explained. Mediaite’s headline called the “number one” claim false.
The follower counts do not back him up. The Mirror’s report, syndicated by AOL, puts Swift’s TikTok account at about 33.5 million followers and as many as 274.5 million likes, and says she is well ahead of Trump on both measures. When Trump made a similar boast in July, IBTimes UK put his own account at roughly 16.6 million followers, less than half of Swift’s, and noted that the platform’s biggest creator, Khaby Lame, has more than 160 million. Neither account comes close to the top of any published list.
Trump has never said what ranking he is reading from. In July he referred only to “a list,” according to IBTimes, and no outlet has identified one that places him first.
How we got to “19”
The first version of the boast came on July 7, four days after Swift married Travis Kelce at Madison Square Garden. Asked about TikTok at a White House press conference, Trump said, “Taylor Swift was number 11. I’m No. 1 in TikTok by far,” as Soapcentral reported. The White House also posted an edited image of the arena’s marquee reading “Trump Is Your President.”
That episode drew an unexpected defender for Swift. Former Trump ally Marjorie Taylor Greene went on The View and called it “absolutely absurd” for the president to go after a popular musician, arguing that he keeps singling Swift out because he wants to be as popular as she is. Media Bias/Fact Check rated the July claim false a week later.
The friction goes back further. After Swift endorsed Kamala Harris in 2024, Trump posted “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!” on Truth Social. Yet his own White House has borrowed her music when it suits: in November 2025, Rolling Stone Australia reported that the official White House TikTok set “The Fate of Ophelia” to a montage of the president, retitled “The Fate of America.”
Where the accounts differ
The coverage agrees on the quote but not on the setting. The Mirror’s write-up framed the line as Trump taking “aim” at Swift and mocking her ranking. Mediaite treated it as one of several inflated numbers in the same passage, alongside the shifting $72 billion and $10 billion figures. CBS presented it more neutrally as Trump “touting his TikTok record.” None of the outlets reported any reaction from Swift’s camp, and none of the coverage of the July claim reported one either. Her representatives also did not respond when Rolling Stone asked about the White House’s use of her song last year.
What happens next
Trump is on a run of midterm rallies before the November 3 vote, and Swift has turned up in his material twice in four months, so a third mention would not be a surprise. If Swift’s camp answers this time, it will be the first response to either TikTok boast that any of these outlets has reported.
What the numbers show is simpler than the rally line. On the platform Trump says he leads, the singer he placed at No. 19 has roughly twice his following.
