‘Forcing your child to say this is mental illness’: A video of a young girl crying over Donald Trump and Taylor Swift has disturbed the internet

Though the election is over, a new video is circulating of mother who seems hell-bent on turning her daughter against Taylor Swift due to the pop star’s audacity to not vote for Donald Trump.

The video, which features a little girl crying and responding to her mom’s confusing line of questioning, garnered criticism from social media users, who took issue with the parent placing her daughter in the middle of a political divide that the little girl almost certainly doesn’t understand. The girl in the TikTok video, presumably shot by her mother (or perhaps a grandma or aunt with boundary issues), seems profoundly confused as she is pressed to express disappointment in Taylor Swift for not voting for Trump. Honestly, I don’t blame her, I’ve seen police interrogations that had fewer leading questions. 

The video is absolutely worth breaking down. At the beginning, the scene plays out like a bizarre political version of Who’s On First. 

As any true crime fan can tell you, this is the exact wrong way to question a witness. The mom is clearly using her questions to lead her daughter to say the things she wants. However, the girl’s adoration of Trump is undercut by the fact that children will regularly agree with and parrot back literally anything they think their parents want to hear.

You have to give the kid props though. Even with her mom’s attempts to guide her into denouncing Taylor, her little girl is apparently a Swiftie to her core.

The mom eventually gets her daughter to agree that “Taylor Swift and Donald Trump” are her favorite. “I don’t know why she didn’t want to vote for Donald Trump,” the little girl wonders in the video. 

It’s no surprise the video got some choice comments. “Forcing your child to say this is mental illness,” one X user said. “No kid should be getting into ANY politics this early,” agreed another. Most commenters agreed that the video was clearly staged, and criticized the girl’s mother for putting her daughter in such an awkward position. “& they say my community is brainwashing children,” a trans commenter pointed out sarcastically.

Regardless of which end of the political spectrum you side with, I think we can all agree that as politics has become more divisive, they have also become more stressful and miserable. So lets please not subject kids to that. I’m not gonna tell anyone how to raise their children, so teach your kids what you will about morality and policy opinions, but don’t coerce them to endorse candidates. 

The girl in this video is barely potty trained—she doesn’t have election opinions, she just wants to do what mommy tells her, and then play LEGOs or something. I believe her when she said she doesn’t know why Taylor Swift didn’t vote for Trump. To be clear, T-Swift released a detailed statement explaining the exact reasons why she didn’t vote for Trump, but that little girl probably couldn’t read it all. Still, I can’t help but wonder what she has to say about Trump’s tariff plan.

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Maggie Mead

Maggie is a writer for TheMarySue. With six years of experience as a writer and editor, Maggie has lent her skills to several publications including ScreenRant, Reality Tea, GameRant, and The Snack.