The Real Meaning of Taylor Swift’s New Song ‘You Need to Calm Down,’ Explained

Taylor Swift has just released another BANGER from her upcoming album, Lover, and we just can’t calm down over how good it is. Already, the internet is ablaze with comments about the hella-political “You Need to Calm Down”—confirming that impartial Taytay is very much a thing of 2017. So, don your rainbow glitter and mute your Twitter @s, because we’re breaking down all the most important lyrics.

The first verse is all about Taylor’s online haters

“Say it in the street, that’s a knockout / But you say it in a tweet, that’s a cop-out.” Keyboard warriors, be gone! The opening of this song is all for not letting the Twitter trolls get to you as well as how spending your free time hating on people online, ya know, probably isn’t the best idea. Just calm down, get off your phone, and join the Swifties.

...OR about Donald Trump

Some fans are CERTAIN this song is actually about the president himself. For one, the single was released on his birthday. Plus, the lyrics do give some weight to the Trump-trolling theory. One of the (admittedly many) people who have taken shots at T-Swiz “like it’s Patrón” is Trump, who said he liked her music “about 25 percent less” after she endorsed Phil Bredesen for Senate. Also, who else is a more famous Twitter troll than @RealDonaldTrump??

Either way, I think we can all agree that Obama-era Taylor Swift was a simpler time for us all.

BASICALLY FORESHADOWING THE LYRICS TO THIS SONG.

Taytay is declaring herself a FIERCE LGBTQ+ Ally

The second verse is all about fighting homophobia, with the line, “Why are you mad? / When you could be GLAAD?” standing directly in solidarity with the LGBTQ+ activist group GLAAD. Also, “’Cause shade never made anybody less gay”—just in case you didn’t get the message.

So, who is the person coming at Taylor’s LGBTQ+ “friends like a missile”? Sure, it could be any one of the many sad homophobic trolls. Or it could be one particular sad homophobic troll—*cough* Donald *cough* Trump. HAPPY PRIDE MONTH, EVERYONE.

The bridge is SO #GirlSquad

“And we see you over there on the internet /Comparing all the girls who are killing it / But we figured you out / We all know now we all got crowns.” YAAAS, QUEEN. Taylor is DONE with people online comparing women and TBH, so are we.