What did Donald Trump do today?

He had some thoughts on popular music.

Trump made two forays into the world of music criticism today. One was to declare that Taylor Swift, a mega-star less than half his age he's tried to start drama with in the past, was no longer "hot"—because he said so.

Taylor Swift on the 2024 Eras Tour, the highest-grossing and highest-revenue concert tour of all time.

The other was to threaten Bruce Springsteen (who, at 75, is still four years younger than Trump) for criticizing Trump at a concert in Manchester, UK on Wednesday. The legendary rocker said that Trump's administration was "corrupt, incompetent and treasonous." Trump responded by suggesting that Springsteen might have trouble returning to the United States if he didn't "KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT."

Trump also called Springsteen "dumb as a rock" and critiqued the condition of his skin.

It's not uncommon for Trump to spend the presidential workday riffing about pop culture on social media. But Springsteen and Swift weren't the only musicians on his mind today. Rolling Stone reported today that friends of the rapper Sean Combs, also known as Puff Daddy and P-Diddy, have been working Trump for months to get him to grant a pardon. Combs is on trial in federal court for sex trafficking and racketeering.

While Diddy isn't Trump's favorite rapper—that would be Kanye West—he does have a good chance at a Trump pardon, based on Trump's history. Combs is a celebrity in a high-profile trial, and more importantly his alleged offenses (running a criminal organization and sex crimes) are similar to ones Trump himself is known or generally suspected of having committed. A great many of Trump's pardons fit that exact pattern.

In fact, Combs is such a natural fit for a Trump pardon that it was first "reported" three days ago, in the satirical newspaper The Onion.

Why does this matter?

• There are probably more important things for the President of the United States to be thinking about than how much he hates popular musicians.
  

• Saying mean things about popular people to get attention is immature even by 7th-grade standards.
  

• It's bad if satire of you reliably comes true.