Dolly Parton built one of the most beloved careers in country music while carefully keeping distance from the political worlds of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
Parton, the iconic country music star widely celebrated as one of the genre’s defining voices, died Tuesday at 80, leaving behind an extraordinary catalog of songs and a devoted global fan base in mourning.
Even with her enormous cultural reach, Parton long resisted being pulled into partisan battles, often choosing to keep her views on the country’s most divisive issues private.
During the 2016 presidential race, she made clear that she had not endorsed either Trump or Clinton after comments praising the Democratic nominee’s qualifications were widely interpreted as political support.
That cautious approach continued in 2020, when she declined to publicly back either Joe Biden or Trump, and again in 2024, when she avoided taking sides in the contest between Kamala Harris and the Republican.
In a 2023 interview, Parton summed up her reluctance to wade into politics with characteristic bluntness: ‘Because you’re going to lose half your audience.’
She also acknowledged that the sharp political divide between Trump and Biden had seeped into everyday life, making even family gatherings tense. ‘Especially if people are drinking – they get in a damn fight at the table,’ she told The Guardian.
Trump offered Parton the Presidential Medal of Freedom twice during his first administration, but she turned it down both times, first citing her husband’s illness and later concerns over COVID and travel.
Dolly Parton poses on the red carpet as she arrives for the 78th annual Academy Awards in Hollywood, California, USA, March 2006
Dolly Parton spent her career trying to avoid Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton
When Biden was considering giving her the medal, Parton said she wasn’t sure she’d accept because taking it could look political. She ultimately declined it as well.
The last time Parton appeared comfortable stepping foot inside the political realm was back in 2005 when George W. Bush presented her with the National Medal of the Arts.
She was hosted at the White House the following year by Bush and First Lady Laura Bush as a Kennedy Center honoree.
Parton explained that she ‘hated politics’ because it forced people to pick sides.
‘I’ve got as many Democrats as I do Republicans as fans, and I’m not going to insult any of them because I care about all of them,’ she said in 2023.
‘I ain’t that good a Christian to think that I am so good that I can judge people. That’s God’s job, not mine. So as far as politics, I hate politics. Hate politics.’
But she said that just because she chose to stay out of politics didn’t mean she didn’t have strong opinions on the issues of the day.
When pressed about Trump during an appearance on ABC’s Nightline in 2018, she said: ‘Of course I have my opinion about everybody and everything. But I learned a long time ago, keep your damn mouth shut if you want to stay in show business.’
George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush stand with the Kennedy Center honorees including Dolly Parton, Smokey Robinson (far left), composer Andrew Lloyd Webber (inside left), film director Steven Spielberg (inside right) and conductor Zubin Mehta (far right), in the Blue Room of the White House during a reception on December 3, 2006
‘I’m not in politics, I’m an entertainer,’ she added.
But Parton’s refusal to come down on one side of the political aisle didn’t mean she was indifferent to the world.
She released World on Fire three years ago, a song that attacked politicians without naming a party.
‘Don’t get me started on politics,’ she sang. ‘Greedy politicians, present and past, they wouldn’t know the truth if it bit ’em in the ass.’
Parton said that the lyrics had been provoked because was was ‘fearful’ about the world.
‘I was worried and grieved about the state that the world is in. Watching the world just burn down around us with all the craziness, all the war, all the famine and the politics – you know, the great divide, I guess, is more what I’m talking about – and what it’s even doing to families, even my own,’ she told NPR after the song’s release.
