American pop singer Taylor Swift says he felt remorse for not being able to participate during Trump's run for the presidency in 2016.
The 29-year-old singer said had she been in a better mental state she would have endorsed Hillary Clinton for the presidential position.
The elections in November 2016 followed a turbulent period in the life of the pop star, where she fell prey to a public argument with Kim Kardashian and Kanye West and her mother's cancer relapsed.
"I was just trying to protect my mental health -- not read the news very much, go cast my vote, tell people to vote," she said. "I just knew what I could handle and I knew what I couldn't. I was literally about to break."
Variety reported that Swift spoke to The Guardian saying that "all the dirtiest tricks in the book were used and it worked," and adding that the current political climate involves "gaslighting the American public into being like, 'If you hate the president, you hate America.'"
"We're a democracy -- at least, we're supposed to be -- where you're allowed to disagree, dissent, debate," she continued. "I really think that he thinks this is an autocracy."
The singer also received flak from some progressives for her apolitical stance following the 2016 election, and for not condemning white nationalists who believed that she secretly supported their beliefs.
She broke her silence last October during her endorsement of two Democratic Tennessee candidates, Phil Bredesen and Jim Cooper, for the House of Representatives in the 2018 midterm elections, a move that would rechristen the singer as a political activist for the LGTBQ+ community and others marginalized by the current White House.
Most recently, she spoke about her political journey at length in a cover story interview with Vogue, reported Variety.
( With inputs from ANI )