Did Trump Lie About MMA That He Claims Made Taylor Swift 'So Much Money'?
Donald Trump did sign an act benefiting singers and songwriters into law during his presidency, but the jury's still out on whether or not he actually helped Taylor Swift make "so much money."
As the pop superstar celebrated her boyfriend Travis Kelce and the Kansas City Chiefs' 2024 Super Bowl win Sunday, the former president took to Truth Social to boast that he "signed and was responsible for the Music Modernization Act for Taylor Swift and all other Musical Artists."
Trump then claimed that the billionaire singer endorsing his Democratic competitor President Joe Biden would be "disloyal to the man who made her so much money."
Trump did indeed sign the Music Modernization Act (MMA) into law when he was president, according to Variety.
He signed the act in 2018 during a high-profile ceremony at the White House attended by Kid Rock, the Beach Boys' Mike Love, John Rich, the Doobie Brothers' Jeff Baxter, and other musicians.
But despite Trump's assertion that he contributed to Swift's financial gains, the nonprofit Future of Music Coalition clarified on X, formerly Twitter, that the singer "wasn't really a huge beneficiary" of the MMA.
The legislation primarily targeted songwriters facing challenges in collecting royalties and pre-1972 artists who weren't adequately compensated for satellite radio plays, according to the organization.
"Whatever you think of him, Trump didn't really have anything to do with the passage of the Music Modernization Act. He did sign it, and he could have supposedly vetoed it, but that would have been extremely unusual for something so relatively uncontroversial," the Future of Music Coalition wrote.
Without commenting on electoral politics...
— Future of Music Coalition (@future_of_music) February 11, 2024
1) Taylor wasn't really a huge beneficiary of the Music Modernization act. It mostly targeted songwriters who weren't successfully collecting mechanical royalties and pre-1972 artists who weren't getting paid for satellite radio plays. https://t.co/lHZAP3w5Fi
Dina LaPolt, one of the attorneys behind the MMA, also dismissed Trump's claims, stating that he did little more than sign the bill.
In a statement to Variety, the lawyer remarked that Trump "doesn't even know what the Music Modernization Act does. Someone should ask him what the bill actually accomplished."
The MMA was a landmark legislation aimed at updating music copyright laws for the digital era.
According to Rolling Stone, the act gives songwriters a more reliable way to get the sums they earn when their songs are streamed on platforms like Spotify and Apple Music or sold on downloading services like Amazon Music.
After the act was passed, Mitch Glazier, the president of the Recording Industry Association of America, said it would result in "a music market better founded on fair competition and fair pay."
In 2014, Swift -- who is now a billionaire thanks to her music catalog, album sales, music royalties, record-breaking "Eras Tour" and concert film -- famously removed her music from Spotify following a Wall Street Journal op-ed in which she criticized the low royalty rates streaming sites pay artists.
At the time, only Apple Music could stream her then-new album "1989" after the platform agreed to pay artists during its free three-month trial, Billboard reported.
Swift's music catalog did not return fully to streaming platforms until 2017.
The "Bad Blood" hitmaker has since continued to rake in millions from streaming.
Variety reported in December 2023 that Swift was poised to earn over $100 million from Spotify alone for that year.
According to Billboard, Swift's total earnings from streaming for 2023 could be around $200 million.
