A mother whose three-year-old died of cancer has hit out after Donald Trump fans used a picture of the pop billionaire crying after singing a song for the late toddler to suggest she regretted her political declarations.
Maya Thompson, from Phoenix, Arizona, whose late son inspired Taylor Swift‘s song Ronan, shared her distress after the former US president’s fan account on X shared an image of the singer crying.
Taking to X, formerly known as Twitter, the account @realTrumpNewsX claimed in a since-deleted post that the US popstar had lost a large amount of money following her endorsement of Kamala Harris.
Next to a snap of Taylor wiping away tears, the caption read: ‘BREAKING: Taylor Swift has lost an estimated 150 million dollars over the boycotting of her merchandise and memorabilia after she endorsed Kamala Harris for president. Thoughts?’
However Maya said she felt like ‘throwing up’ after she pointed out the context of the image, writing: ‘Is this real? Are they using a picture of @taylorswift13 crying after she performed ‘Ronan’ about my child? I’m going to throw up.’
Maya Thompson, from Phoenix, Arizona, whose three-year-old Ronan died of cancer slams Trump fan account for using picture of Taylor Swift crying after performing a song written for her son
The claim was fact-checked by Snopes.com who found there was no evidence of Swift’s endorsement resulting in financial loss for the pop star.
She followed up with another tweet adding: ‘Can you please help me get this post taken down by telling @realTrumpNewsX to remove this, as these are pictures related to my dead child? I feel so violated; this moment is sacred to me.’
Maya’s son, Ronan, died in 2011 from neuroblastoma, a rare form of cancer in the nervous system. After hearing about Ronan’s story, Swift wrote a song about the tot, which she performed at a Stand Up To Cancer telethon.
Maya later updated her fans on TikTok to let them know: ‘It’s been deleted. Thank all of you so much. I love you.’
‘The misinformation about Taylor circulating on social media related to my dead child is down,’ she captioned the TikTok.
In the clip, she said: ‘This was horrifically upsetting to me and very triggering so I did reach out to somebody who I knew could get these photos removed within a matter of 20 minutes and they are down now so I can breath again and I can go on with my day.
‘The weight of this stuff never goes away but I feel better knowing that these photos are no longer there under this context.
‘Thank you all for always being here and rallying behind the love of Ronan. I’m so thankful for every one of you.’
Taylor burst into tears after performing Ronan at the 2012 Stand Up to Cancer telethon and all proceeds from the song went to cancer-related charities
Next to a snap of Taylor wiping away tears, the captioned read: ‘BREAKING: Taylor Swift has lost an estimated 150 million dollars over the boycotting of her merchandise and memorabilia after she endorsed Kamala Harris for president. Thoughts?’
At the time of her son’s death the grieving mother posted various blogs about her child, which Swift followed and used quotes from to write the song Ronan, dedicated to the blue eyed toddler.
Swift’s lyrics were based entirely on the blog Maya starting writing in August 2010, when her son Ronan was diagnosed and she is credited as a co-writer on the track.
Her bubbly, wide-eyed little boy fought the illness for nine months before passing away in May 2011, just three days before his fourth birthday.
Maya used the blog as a way to work through her grief at the loss of her child, something she describes as ‘the worst thing that could happen to a family.’
The mother met Swift in October 2011 when she was invited to the singer’s concert in Phoenix.
‘She had been reading my blog for a while and heard that Ronan had passed away, and she was just devastated by it’, she told AZcentral.com.
But Maya was unaware quite how much Ronan’s story had affected the singer until she received a surprise voice mail from her.
‘My calmness soon turned to complete and utter frozen shock when these words came out of her mouth. ‘I wrote a song for Ronan,’ she wrote on her blog, Rockstar Ronan.
‘The tears started pouring down my cheeks as soon as I heard her say those words. But her words didn’t stop there. Not only did she write a song for you, but she wanted to know if it would be alright to perform it on the nationally televised show.’
Swift was clearly shaken while she performed the song at the 2012 Stand Up to Cancer telethon, singing: ‘I remember your bare feet down the hallway.’
Maya Thompson, from Phoenix, Arizona, whose three-year-old died of cancer slams Trump fan account for using picture of Taylor Swift crying after performing a song written for her son
‘I remember your little laugh, race cars on the kitchen floor, plastic dinosaurs, I love you to the moon and back.’
Taylor burst into tears after performing and all proceeds from the song went to cancer-related charities.
The emotional ballad was originally a single performed at the Stand Up to Cancer telethon before it was later added to one of the singer’s re-recorded albums Red. (Taylor’s Version)
‘I’ve recently completed the re-recording of my 4th album, Red. It’s really exceeded my expectations in so many ways, and one of those ways is that I thought it would be appropriate to add ‘Ronan’ to this album,’ Swift wrote, asking for Thompson’s permission, according to one of her blog posts.
Last week, Taylor dramatically endorsed Kamala Harris just moments after the presidential debate in one of the biggest moments of the monumental night in the 2024 race.
Donald Trump’s campaign brushed off Taylor Swift’s endorsement of his Democratic rival
Taylor Swift posted her endorsement moments after Donald Trump and Kamala Harris finished their first debate
The megastar made the bombshell announcement on Instagram after the ABC showdown where Trump accused migrants of eating pets and said Democrats wanted to ‘execute babies’ in the ninth month of pregnancy.
The world has been waiting for the 34-year-old Pennsylvania native to weigh in on the election after she backed Joe Biden in 2020.
And she chose the first meeting between Trump and Harris to make it clear she was backing the Democrats, and slammed the former president for ‘falsely’ claiming her support with a slew of AI images.
In an race that could be decided by tiny margins, Swift’s endorsement could have huge ramifications on the momentum with less than eight weeks until election day.
It capped off a positive night for Harris, who was widely declared the winner on the biggest night of her career.
The Trump campaign shrugged off the endorsement, claiming it’s further proof Swift is part of the ‘Democratic elite.’
Swift poked fun at Republicans in her endorsement. She included a photo of her cat, a knock at Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance who mocked ‘childless cat ladies.’ Harris supporters took the chant to heart and formed groups of cat ladies for Harris.
The singer said in her post that that she was disturbed by false reports she had endorsed Trump.
‘I will be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 Presidential Election,’ she wrote. She signed her post ‘childless cat lady.’
The Trump campaign shrugged off the endorsement. ‘It’s further evidence that the Democrat Party, unfortunately, is the party of the wealthy elite,’ Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told DailyMail.com.
‘And Taylor Swift may make great music, but she does not understand the struggles of everyday, hardworking families, and President Trump is speaking on behalf of those hardworking, struggling families who don’t get the privilege, like Taylor Swift, of living in a gated community, who need their local police to be funded, who want their Second Amendment right to defend themselves and their family because they don’t have armed security like Taylor Swift has.’
