Taylor Swift blasts ‘enemies’ Scooter Braun, Kanye West: ‘Trash takes itself out’
Karma is her boyfriend.
Taylor Swift says she takes the high road when it comes to her foes Kanye West and Scooter Braun because she’s learned that “trash takes itself out every single time.”
“My response to anything that happens, good or bad, is to keep making things. Keep making art,” the Grammy winner, 33, told Time Wednesday for her “Person of the Year” 2023 cover story.
“But I’ve also learned there’s no point in actively trying to quote unquote defeat your enemies.”
While Swift is at the peak of her game, her nemeses have seemingly experienced professional and personal downfalls.
Braun — who was accused of not giving her an opportunity to purchase her own masters — parted ways with several of his A-list talents in 2023.
It was revealed in August that Demi Lovato parted ways with the longtime executive as her manager, while Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber were rumored to have done so as well.
Braun, 42, first joked about the departures on Twitter, but then shared a cryptic quote about starting “a new life,” which read in part, “Your new life is going to cost you your old one. It’s going to cost you your comfort zone and your sense of direction.
“It’s going to cost you relationships and friends. It’s going to cost you being liked and understood. It doesn’t matter.”
The professional losses came one year after Braun’s divorce from his wife of eight years, Yael Cohen, was finalized, and he was forced to pay her $20 million.
“With the Scooter thing, my masters were being sold to someone who actively wanted them for nefarious reasons, in my opinion,” Swift told Time, adding that re-recordings of her music gave her a newfound strength.
“It’s all in how you deal with loss,” the “Cruel Summer” singer said. “I respond to extreme pain with defiance.”
Reps for Braun did not immediately return Page Six’s request for comment, but a source tells Page Six exclusively the music manager met Swift only three times in his life and had no reason to have a vendetta.
“He purchased the label [Big Machine Records], and he offered her masters numerous times,” the source insists, adding that Braun bought the label for investment purposes.
Big Machine founder Scott Borchetta also previously disputed Taylor’s claims, alleging that the singer’s father, Scott Swift, who was a shareholder in the label, found out about the deal early on.
“Her 13 Management team and attorney Don Passman went over this document in great detail and reported the terms to her in great detail,” Borchetta, 61, wrote in a letter titled, “So, It’s Time for Some Truth” that was posted online in June 2019. “Taylor and I then talked through the deal together.”
He then added of Braun, “Scooter has always been and will continue to be a supporter and honest custodian for Taylor and her music.”
West, another one of Taylor’s professional adversaries, has also faced major scrutiny recently — in particular, for controversial remarks he has made about the Jewish community.
In the fall of 2022, the Yeezy CEO was dropped from major brand deals, including partnerships with Adidas, Balenciaga and Gap, as a result of his antisemitic comments.
He wrote on social media that October that he would go “death con 3 on Jewish people” and it led to him losing his billionaire status.
“Nothing is permanent,” Taylor told Time. “So I’m very careful to be grateful every second that I get to be doing this at this level, because I’ve had it taken away from me before.”
A rep for West could not immediately be reached.
Their bad blood stems from the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards when Taylor won Best Female Music Video and West jumped on stage to say Beyoncé was the one who deserved the recognition.
Despite reconciling, the rapper released a track called “Famous” in 2016, in which he rapped that he “might still have sex” with Taylor because he “made that bitch famous.”
The pop star claimed she never gave West permission to use her name in the song, prompting his then-wife Kim Kardashian to leak an edited version of a private phone call between the two musicians.
Reflecting on the drama that ensued, Taylor told Time Wednesday, “You have a fully manufactured frame job, in an illegally recorded phone call, which Kim Kardashian edited and then put out to say to everyone that I was a liar.
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“That took me down psychologically to a place I’ve never been before. I moved to a foreign country. I didn’t leave a rental house for a year. I was afraid to get on phone calls. I pushed away most people in my life because I didn’t trust anyone anymore. I went down really, really hard.”
Page Six has reached out to Kardashian’s rep for comment but did not immediately hear back.
However, in 2020, the “Kardashians” star, 43, slammed Taylor for rehashing the incident to raise awareness for the COVID-19 pandemic.
She tweeted at the time, “@taylorswift13 has chosen to reignite an old exchange — that at this point in time feels very self-serving given the suffering millions of real victims are facing right now.
“To be clear, the only issue I ever had around the situation was that Taylor lied through her publicist who stated that ‘Kanye never called to ask for permission…’ They clearly spoke so I let you all see that. Nobody ever denied the word ‘bitch’ was used without her permission.”
