White House Sums Up the Year With a Taylor Swift Lyric

The White House began a review of U.S. accomplishments in 2022 by quoting Taylor Swift’s hit song “22.”

The review, which the White House published on its website Thursday, was attributed to White House Domestic Policy Adviser Susan Rice. Rice later shared highlights of the review on Twitter.

“I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling ’22,” the White House’s review began. The line is a lyric that appears in “22,” a song on Swift’s 2012 album Red that the singer/songwriter also released later as a single.

After its light-hearted beginning, the White House document acknowledged the world faced “daunting challenges” over the course of this last year, including the Russia-Ukraine war, weather-fueled natural disasters and “stubbornly high inflation.”

“Yet, 2022 also yielded remarkable progress for the American people,” Rice wrote. The U.S. has added more than 10.5 million jobs to the economy during President Joe Biden’s administration so far, she said, and inflation “has shown signs of moderating” after the U.S. recorded its biggest inflation increase in four decades.

Above, Taylor Swift is pH๏τographed performing onstage on September 20 in Nashville, Tennessee. On Thursday, the White House published an overview of U.S. accomplishments in 2022 that started by quoting a lyric from Swift’s 2012 hit “22.”TERRY WYATT/GETTY IMAGES
The review continued by saying 2022 was marked by “historic accomplishments” ranging from the Inflation Reduction Act and new gun safety legislation to the Respect for Marriage Act and Biden’s announcement of student loan debt relief for qualifying borrowers, which the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to consider early next year.

Rice said the accomplishments mentioned at the start of the review make an “impressive list” but represent “only the tip of the iceberg.”

“For every high-profile bill signing on the South Lawn, there have been dozens of other highly impactful executive actions, agency regulations, and notable initiatives centered on delivering opportunity for the American people,” Rice wrote.

The document then listed 12 other accomplishments secured since the start of the year, which included continued work to advance equity and racial justice, an executive order aimed at furthering “safe, effective, and accountable community policing,” investments in tribal nations and Biden’s decision to pardon federal charges related to simple marijuana possession, among others.

Rice’s review concluded by saying the various accomplishments she mentioned show that the Biden administration tackled “some of our nation’s toughest challenges” and delivered on those issues.

“That’s the spirit that drove our Administration to success during 2022, and it’s the spirit we’re carrying with us into 2023,” Rice wrote.

The Biden administration is about to face a divided Congress in the new year after Democrats retained control of the U.S. Senate but lost control of the House of Representatives to Republicans during the 2022 midterm elections.

As Biden and White House officials prepare to tackle the remaining two years of his first term in office, Swift continues setting records in the music industry, with Universal Music Group announcing last week that her album Midnights, released in October, became her fifth album to sell the equivalent of more than 1 million album units during the first week of its release, making her the only artist to do so for five albums.

Swift is expected to begin the U.S. leg of her upcoming tour in May.