Taylor Swift's Letter of Support to This Controversial Figure Has Left Fans 'Disappointed'

Taylor Swift is getting some backlash after penning a letter to a famous fan with a controversial past.

Fans were left feeling disappointed by the singer after Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy shared the hand-written note he received from Swift ahead of her Miami stop on the Eras Tour.

“I am so happy to have you at the show tonight,” a letter seemingly written by Swift read. “I wanted to say thank you for always being so supportive, so loyal, and for having my back when a lot of people didn’t. I hope you have a blast tonight!! Love, Taylor.”

The letter was written on a letterhead which reads “from the desk of TAYLOR SWIFT” at the top and “SONGWRITER/FELINE ENTHUSIAST.” The letterhead went viral last year when the singer sent a note to Alicia Keys.

After Portnoy shared the note he received, social media users expressed their frustration with the singer for thanking a Trump supporter who has been accused of sexual misconduct. “Taylor giving Dave Portnoy a letter is quite disappointing ngl,” wrote one X user, adding, “[I don’t care] if y’all say he’s a ‘taywarrior’ he’s racist & a Trumpie. There’s so many people who are way more deserving of this than him.”

“Taylor doing this for misogynist Dave Portnoy is a bad decision and shows how backwards Taylor’s 13 Management team still is, especially considering she is very strategic about any time she speaks,” another fan added.

Last week, Portnoy, who says he plans to vote for Donald Trump in the current election cycle, labelled Vice President Kamala Harris “the worst presidential candidate in the history of American politics.” Swift endorsed Harris back in September, a move Portnoy responded to saying, “I don’t care at all.”

Prior to his support for Trump, Portnoy’s list of controversies also includes allegations of sexual misconduct from multiple women, using racist and misogynist language in so-called “comedy” videos and sexist attacks against women who work in sports media.

In 2021, an Insider report accused Portnoy of having “violent and humiliating” sex with women as young as 19 while he was in his 40s. A follow-up report from Insider spoke to more alleged victims with similar claims against Portnoy, including three women who claimed he filmed their sexual encounters without their consent. Portnoy’s subsequent defamation lawsuit against the outlet was dismissed and he dropped his appeal case in 2023.

In 2020, footage resurfaced of Portnoy using the N-word, making racist comments about Colin Kaepernick and supporting a colleague’s use of blackface.

In a 2014 episode of a Barstool Sports show, Portnoy called ESPN host Samantha Ponder a “sl-t.”

“We want to see you sex it up and be sl-tty and not be some prude f–king jerk who everybody hates,” Portnoy said, per The Guardian. “Sam Ponder, you f–king sl-t.”

In 2010, Portnoy wrote a blog post in which he sided with an Australian man who’d been acquitted of rape after his defense team used the fact that his victim was wearing skinny jeans to aid his case. “Even though I never condone rape, if you’re a size 6 and you’re wearing skinny jeans you kind of deserve to be raped, right?” Portnoy wrote. Portnoy addressed the post in May of this year. “Where I failed,” he told Tucker Carlson, “I thought size 6 was like a size 20.”

As explored in a 2018 report by The Daily Beast, Portnoy, who has described himself as “uncancellable,” has a long history of leading scorched-earth campaigns against his critics and often leans on his die-hard supporters to sexually harass and dox those critics online.