Tate McRae Says Fans Know Where She Stands Politically: ‘I Think It’s Pretty Obvious What Kind of Person I Am’

Tate McRae is not worried about the whispers, because she knows — and she knows her die-hard Tater Tots know — where her heart is. In a new Variety feature, Alberta, Canada-native McRae was asked to respond to internet whispers suggesting she might be a secret MAGA supporter in the wake of her Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 duet with country firebrand Morgan Wallen last year, “What I Want.”

Though Wallen has never officially come out in support of President Donald Trump’s hard-right agenda or shared any of his political views in public, the magazine wondered why it’s important to McRae not to wade into any political drama.

“I like to say my piece through organizations I support and the environment that I have on tour,” she said, with Variety noting that while on tour last year McRae posted a TikTok advertising a “Little Miss Possessive” hoodie, with a portion of proceeds from the sales going the Global Fund for Women as well as The Trevor Project, which focuses on suicide prevention for LGBTQ+ youth. “I think it’s pretty obvious what kind of person I am and the things I support. And I hope that my fans can see that through the things that I’m putting my energy towards.”

The talk also ramped up after McRae’s reported boyfriend, New Jersey Devils center Jack Hughes, joined some members of his team in laughing at a sexist joke made by Trump during their congratulatory call following their Olympic hockey win earlier this year.

“I try to keep my relationships as sacred and private as possible,” she said diplomatically when asked about Hughes. “I love the people in my life. They love me. You just try to keep that circle as positive and supportive as possible. And the outside noise, I can’t do anything about that. Focusing my energy on something that I can’t control, it just puts me in a bad mood.”

The piece also touches on the 23-year-old triple threat’s burgeoning friendship with Taylor Swift, who, not for nothing, sent her a homemade loaf of her famous sourdough bread. “The basket smelled amazing,” McRae said of the fragrant gift from the singer who also invited her to the wedding of the century last month at Madison Square Garden. “I don’t know what perfume she wears, but I was like, ‘She must smell incredible.’” 

Another thing McRae is not up for is spilling on is who two of her recent songs were about, declining to confirm that the title track to her 2025 album, So Close to What, is about former boyfriend singer Kid Laroi, in keeping with the privacy curtain she’s pulled around her dating life. She also won’t tell if September’s red-hot revenge song “Tit For Tat” was a chronicle of a romantic betrayal, although that one, too, is believed to be connected to Laroi. “If you think about the reception while you’re creating, you’re destroying the process,” she told the magazine. “Thinking about reception and people interpreting is so terrifying to me.”

The good news for Tater Tot Nation is that McRae said she’s already working on her fourth album, which is in its early stages after she first hopped back in the studio in February with songwriters Amy Allen and Emilie Haynie (Sabrina Carpenter, Olivia Rodrigo, Harry Styles). As in the past, McRae is mood-boarding the LP at the moment and is not sure what the final form will be, but she notes that she’s frequently found herself flipping through a Dolly Parton coffee table book filled with her lyrics for inspiration and keeps the country legend’s songs on a playlist titled: Bubbly Bubbly Brain Refresh.

At the time of the interview, McRae was nervous about two upcoming festival headlining gigs, including her first-ever festival slot in her home country at the Osheaga Festival in Montreal. That gig on Saturday (Aug. 1), made her the first Canadian to headline the country’s most high-profile festival since Arcade Fire in 2022. And McRae didn’t disappoint, proving she’s “Canada down” during a sleek 70-minute set filled with hits and impressive choreography.

She finished her career-peak twofer on Sunday night (Aug. 2) at Lollapalooza in Chicago, where she again ended the set with a gilded gag that sent Tots into overdrive when she slipped into a tub filled with gold paint during “Sports Car” and emerged like a sparkling trophy.

“There’s always thought about how you want your legacy to go down,” she told the magazine before the back-to-back performances. “For me, the way to do that is try to beat your last performance, try to beat your last song, try to grow, evolve, pick it apart, rip it apart, figure out what didn’t work, what I didn’t like about that performance, what I could have done better, why I was nervous, figure out how to not be nervous. I think the more you can master yourself and your performances, the better you get.”

The news about the in-process TM4 LP further stoked the fires after fans were already thinking McRae was cueing up her next era before the festival sets when they noticed that the singer’s Instagram had undergone a refresh. They quietly switched their branding from her So Close to What era to a minimalist photoshoot with a clean, stylized new font with the caption, “Montreal, Chicago. See u soon.”

Tots then noticed that posters had popped up around Chicago with hand-drawl-like graphics and four images of McRae, listing the dates of her Osheaga and Lolla sets, as well as including the numbers “10 1,” which fans think may be teasing an Oct. 1 announcement or release date for the follow-up to So Close to What, which was her first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 when it debuted atop the chart last year.