Taylor Swift has spoken out about Donald Trump and her disillusionment with her home country in a new interview.
The 29-year-old singer told The Guardian she believed the US president was “gaslighting the American public into being like, ‘If you hate the president, you hate America.’”
She also accused him of “autocracy”, saying: “We’re a democracy – at least, we’re supposed to be – where you’re allowed to disagree, dissent, debate. I really think that he thinks this is an autocracy.”
The Shake It Off singer has become more vocal about the current political climate in recent years after she didn’t publicly endorse a candidate in the 2016 presidential election.
The star explained this was down to her dealing with personal issues, including her mother’s cancer relapse and a high-profile feud with Kanye West and his wife, Kim Kardashian.
“I was just trying to protect my mental health – not read the news very much, go cast my vote, tell people to vote. I just knew what I could handle and I knew what I couldn’t. I was literally about to break,” she tells the newspaper.
However, she adds that she felt “really remorseful for not saying anything” but believed her negative public image at the time could have been a hindrance rather than a help.
She confirmed that she would otherwise have endorsed Hillary Clinton for president.
Taylor released her latest album, Lover, on Friday. It is the first album she owns the masters of after pop manager Scooter Braun bought all of her previous releases as part of a controversial deal with her previous record label.
Scooter – who manages pop heavyweights Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber – was branded a bully by Taylor when it was revealed the master copies of her back catalogue had been sold.
The singer had been signed to Big Machine Records since her music career started as a teen, and the label owned the rights to her first six albums, including 2008’s Fearless and 2014’s 1989.
In June, Scooter Braun company’s Ithaca Holdings announced that it had acquired Big Machine Records in a deal believed to be worth around £237 million, meaning he owned the master recordings of all of Taylor’s previous releases.
Taylor signed with Universal Music Group in November last year, in a deal ensuring she maintained the rights to her work.