From JD Vance’s dinnertime Bieber to Sam Altman’s Shazaming of incredibly popular hit songs, a website claiming to have published the Spotify listening habits of members of the Trump administration, tech leaders, and journalists is making the rounds.
“We’ve been scraping their accounts since summer 2024. Playlists, live listening feed, everything. We know what songs they played, when, and how many times,” the Panama Playlists site reads, alleging, “With a little sleuthing, I could say with near-certainty: Yep, this is them.”
Are all of the accounts real? At this point, it’s hard to tell. The accounts listed have not been independently verified by WIRED. Reporter Mike Isaac from The New York Times tells WIRED that the songs listed on the website under his name match his real Spotify listening history. Five of the Spotify listeners from the website confirmed to The Verge the accuracy of their posted data. So, I’ve spent all morning obsessively listening to every song on the Panama Playlists, enjoying a voyeuristic look into the listening habits of powerful people.
Representatives of the public figures whose playlists were featured did not respond to immediate requests for comment.
Vance’s potential cooking playlist, which had been reported on before this drop, has Justin Bieber’s “One Time” and the Backstreet Boys’ “I Want It That Way” in rotation. The Panama Playlists also claim US attorney general Pam Bondi jams out to Nelly’s “Hot in Herre” and Foreigner’s “Cold as Ice,” (the latter sounds like a mad lib for the administration’s current immigration policy), Florida governor Ron DeSantis allegedly streams Miley Cyrus’ “Party in the USA”, and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt appears to enjoy some Cyndi Lauper with “Girls Just Want to Have Fun.” (I mean, some of them also want reproductive rights, too).
Even gay Republicans couldn’t resist the gravitational pull of Brat summer, it seems, with nominee for US undersecretary of state for economic growth, energy, and the environment Jacob Helberg listening to Charli XCX’s “Apple” over 50 times in the past year. If the lists are accurate, Helberg could soon become the member of the Trump administration most on the gay-pop train. Chappell Roan’s “Femininomenon” and Addison Rae’s “Diet Pepsi” clock in as his next top two most-listened songs, according to the Panama Playlists. I wonder how Helberg’s potential boss would feel about him being a Chappell-head, especially considering the artist said “fuck Trump” last year.
The songs Silicon Valley tech leaders allegedly have on repeat are especially unhinged. The public Spotify account seemingly linked to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, which appears to follow playlists from one of Altman’s longtime friends, contains multiple Shazam playlists of identified tracks, from Dixon Dallas’ “Good Lookin’,” a gay parody of country music, to Missy Elliott’s “Get Ur Freak On.” Elliott’s ubiquitous hit is mainly just the lyrics “get ur freak on” repeated over and over, making it particularly ironic to Shazam. Additional songs that Altman appears to have Shazamed include: “Pumped Up Kicks,” by Foster the People, “Liability,” by Lorde, “The A Team,” by Ed Sheeran, “Fly,” by Nicki Minaj, and “Make You Feel My Love,” by Adele.
