Ronan's Song: Mom left heartbroken after Trump fans misuse a very specific Taylor Swift pic

Phoenix, Arizona: Phoenix mom Maya Thompson, the mother of three-year-old Ronan who died of cancer, has expressed her outrage after a Trump-supporting account on X (formerly Twitter) used a photo of pop megastar Taylor Swift crying to falsely claim Swift had lost $150 million in merchandise sales after endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris. The image used was from Swift's emotional performance of 'Ronan', a song written in memory of Maya’s son, at a Stand Up To Cancer telethon.

Maya took to social media to share her distress, pointing out the misuse of the image and describing her reaction as feeling like she was "going to throw up". She clarified that the photo was from a deeply personal moment related to her son’s death, making the false claim particularly painful.

Swift’s song 'Ronan' was written after Maya shared her experiences of losing Ronan to neuroblastoma, a rare form of childhood cancer. The song, which Swift performed in 2012, was based on Maya's blog posts documenting her son’s fight with cancer. Maya explained that Swift had followed her blog and was moved to write the song to honor Ronan. Proceeds from the song have since been donated to cancer charities. The ballad was originally a single performed at the Stand Up to Cancer telethon before it was later added to one of the singer's re-recorded albums 'Red (Taylor's Version)'.

Maya reached out to her followers, asking for help in getting the post removed, which was eventually taken down after widespread support. She later thanked everyone for their help, explaining on TikTok how upsetting and triggering the incident had been. The false claims were debunked by fact-checkers, with no evidence linking Swift’s political endorsement to any financial losses.