Brat Summer Politics

This summer, Jake Tapper’s daughter, Alice Paul Tapper, joined many Gen Zers who found themselves explaining the slang term "brat" to their somewhat bewildered parents.

On October 11, the CNN anchor and his 17-year-old daughter made an appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers, where Alice recounted the moment she introduced her dad to the "Kamala is brat" trend. It all began after President Joe Biden withdrew from the 2024 race, and Vice President Kamala Harris received an unexpected shoutout from British pop star Charli XCX. The singer, whose sixth album brat debuted to critical acclaim last June, tweeted "Kamala IS brat," merging the political world with her album's vibe and riding the wave of the viral “brat summer” trend.

Speaking to Seth Meyers, Alice revealed she was the one who pushed her father to cover the “brat summer” phenomenon in a now-viral CNN segment.

“Everyone online was buzzing about it, and my friends had brat on repeat all summer,” Alice explained. “I thought it was hilarious how politics and music collided like that. I was obsessed.”

Jake humorously shared how his daughter’s tip led him to notice that Kamala Harris’s campaign account had changed its banner to mimic Charli XCX’s neon-green album cover. “I told my team, ‘This is something we absolutely need to cover,’ because it was honestly one of the most interesting things happening at that moment,” he recalled.

But like any teenager, Alice admitted her enthusiasm for the trend took a hit when her father got involved. “When my dad started covering it, I was like, ‘Why are you getting into my business?’ It definitely lost some of its charm for me,” she joked.

Alice playfully avoided confirming whether Jake embraced the "brat" label, saying, "I think that's up to Charli XCX to decide."

Charli later reflected on the unexpected political impact of her viral post, telling Vulture she didn’t intend to spark a political conversation but was glad it took a positive direction.

“I knew what I was doing,” she said. “Did I expect to end up on CNN for talking about being a messy b****? No. But I'm always down to support democracy and women’s rights.”

Though “brat summer” officially ended with Charli’s bittersweet farewell tweet on September 2, her playful endorsement of Vice President Harris remains one of the more unexpected — and entertaining — pop culture moments of the year.