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While all the talk of campaign endorsements revolved around Taylor Swift this week, earlier on Tuesday, before the presidential debate, home and hospitality magnate Martha Stewart made her choice.
In an onstage interview with Joanna Coles, chief creative and content officer for the Daily Beast, at the 2024 Retail Influencer CEO Forum, Stewart said she would absolutely be tuning in to the debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.
“Oh, you bet,” she said, before revealing her choice of candidate.
“Kamala,” she stated, emphasizing the correct pronunciation.
Stewart explained that she supports the vice president because she wants a president “who doesn’t hate New York” and “doesn’t hate democracy.”
In 2016, Stewart publicly supported Hillary Clinton, telling CNN at the time: “We just can’t have a country run by someone who is totally unprepared for what comes.”
After Trump won that election, Stewart changed her tune and congratulated him, saying that there was now a “true entrepreneur in the White House.”
In 2020, she avoided endorsing either Trump or Joe Biden.
“My personal conundrum is, my friends know who I am and what I stand for,” she told The New York Times.
“But in terms of being the owner of the magazine, how do you take sides when 50 percent of your readers might be on one side, and 50 percent on the other? It’s difficult. That’s my answer to that.”
Stewart has something of a history with Trump having butted heads back in 2006.
Both stars had versions of The Apprentice on the air at the same time but Stewart’s was not the audience hit that Trump’s was and she blamed him for not honoring a deal she said they had for her to “fire” him, leaving her version as the only one.
“Having two Apprentices was as unfair to him as it was unfair to me,” she said at the time.
A feud ensued with Trump writing a public letter accusing her of lying about their agreement, later telling the press: “I wish she would be able to take responsibility for her failure.”
In an appearance on Stewart’s show in 2008, comedian Joan Rivers cracked a joke about Trump’s branded steaks and feigned confusion that she was eating him.
Correcting herself that the then-reality TV star hadn’t been slaughtered, Stewart quickly cracked: “Too bad!”
To laughter from Rivers and the audience, she added: “I’ll add my little two cents.”
And then sarcastically: “We all love Donald Trump.”
Perhaps in November, Stewart will again have the last laugh.
