Despite all of the polarization of this year’s Presidential election, one thing is certain: Both parties received a multitude of celebrity endorsements. From singers like Beyonce to professional athletes like Hulk Hogan, celebrities from all over the political spectrum have voiced their opinions as well as motivating voters to make their voices heard. 

Celebrity endorsements have proven to be extremely effective given the amount of newly registered voters coming out of these endorsements such as the 27,000 voters coming out from Sabrina Carpenter’s latest tour. 

Although these endorsements have proven to be motivating more people to go out and vote, there are many problems when it comes to celebrity endorsements when it comes to politics. 

For one thing, celebrities live such different lives than the average person. Celebrities have their silver spoon, private jets and essentially the kind of life that we all wish they had. Therefore, no matter where someone falls in the political compass, a celebrity’s endorsement for a certain politician is going to feel disingenuous since their lifestyles are so much better off than most people.

On top of that, many of these celebrities live completely separate lives from when they did when they grew up. Even though a certain celebrity may say that they lived similarly to the average person, their lives obviously have changed much more given their fame and profession. Therefore, their endorsement feels even more questionable. 

The biggest issue with celebrity endorsement when it comes to politics is that it furthers the popularized concept of politics as a form of entertainment. 

Politics becoming a form of entertainment in the public eye is the gravest mistake in our nation and celebrity endorsements only further that because now it feels like they have further separated themselves from reality and the very real stakes of the election and entered the flashy sports game-like world that is now politics. 

Two big examples from both Presidential candidates are the Charli XCX “brat” trend and Elon Musk’s heavy involvement in the Trump campaign. Both of these endorsements heavily affected both campaigns given XCX’s popularity over the summer with her album, “Brat” and the extremely popular trend among Gen Z using the word to describe something confident and bold. This term on top of XCX’s endorsement of Kamala Harris has motivated Gen Z voters to want to register and vote for Harris. 

In the case of Trump and Musk, this has not only boosted Trump’s campaign but also truly embraced the demographic of X, formerly known as Twitter. Not to mention the controversial giveaway Musk implemented by promising registered voters $1 million cash prizes. Due to these sweepstakes and Musk’s endorsement for Trump, this benefits both the Trump campaign as well as Musk’s popularity. 

These celebrity endorsements and the countless others being thrown around this election begs the question whether or not these celebrities actually have their own opinions on the candidates and election or if they are just looking for a reason to advertise themselves and further their popularity while also riling up the American public. 

Now, this is not to say that all celebrities are doing this for monetary gain or to raise popularity for themselves. Politics are extremely important when it comes to art and everyday life since it’s a big reason why popular culture has evolved into what it is today and as mentioned before, these endorsements and the crossover of entertainment with politics is a big reason why many people have voted in this election. 

However, that does not excuse the fact that this election should be taken seriously and should be grounded in reality. Yes, it’s fun to have all of these trends and seeing these celebrities have their voices heard, but it is hard to take the election and its stakes seriously when the public sees Presidential candidates are using modern day lingo or pulling flashy and trendy moves online all because they know it’ll get people talking. It all seems like that now more than ever, politicians aren’t looking for the popular vote because of what they stand for, but what they are trending for.