Lady Gaga spoke to ELLE for her February cover story just six days after Donald Trump won the 2024 election. The results were very much on her mind, and Gaga spoke forcefully about her determination to help protect marginalized communities during Trump’s time in office.
When asked how she was feeling about the election, Gaga, who endorsed Trump’s Democratic opponent Kamala Harris, replied, “The main thing is I have so much compassion and love for so many people who are afraid today. I want to acknowledge that I’m a very blessed person, and I feel grateful for so much in my life every day. I know for a lot of people, this election was devastating for their existence, so community is going to be the number one thing. I am one of many people who support the [LGBTQ and other marginalized] communities. And we’re not going down without a fight. We will stick together. It’s going to be hard, but I’m up for it. We’re up for it. And I just want everyone to know how deeply they’re loved and not invisible.”
The singer admitted that, despite writing a new album called Mayhem, she was expecting a different political reality. “What’s bizarre is I did not write this album thinking that this would happen,” she said. “I prayed it would not. But here we are.”
In the eight days since taking office, Trump has already targeted trans and nonbinary people. On the first day of his new term, the president signed an executive order that establishes “the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female.” One result of this executive order is that the State Department froze all passport applications where the person selected “X” as their gender identifier.
Gaga’s friend Ariana Grande was among those to voice support for the LGBTQ+ community following the executive order.