The former FBI director, James Comey, is urging his liberal fans to draw inspiration from none other than Taylor Swift — who, he says, is one of his favorite artists — and be kinder to their fellow Americans and try to ignore President Trump. 

Mr. Comey, who was recently investigated by federal law enforcement for sharing a post online that had the numbers “86–47,” urged his followers on Substack in a video message on Sunday to be better than “our elderly, makeup-covered president.”

“I don’t want us to become like Trump and his followers. There are far more decent, honest, kind people in America than there are mean jerks,” Mr. Comey said in the video posted online. “In particular, there’s a stunning coarseness and ugliness in the Republican Party today. It’s upsetting, but it’s also a minority of America. On the whole, we aren’t like that.”

“I think that’s a big part of the reason so few Americans support Donald Trump when they have to see him, and that, up close, and why Republicans are so worried about what’s coming for them next year,” he added. 

The former FBI director specifically draws inspiration from Ms. Swift, whose music he says he always listens to as he is doing yardwork. Ms. Swift recently made headlines after appearing on a podcast with her boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce, and his brother. Mr. Comey calls her a “truly inspirational public figure.”

“Of course I watched her podcast interview with the Kelce brothers,” Mr. Comey says in the video. “I went to my first concert of hers 15 years ago. I’ve been to a second, and I have helped financially support the attendance of a lot of family members at others. I’m in a family ‘Swifties’ group chat. I know all her music, and I listen to it in my headphones when I cut the grass.”

“Like a lot of you, I struggle with how to stand up to bullies without letting their meanness affect me and change me,” Mr. Comey told followers, musing about Mr. Trump. He praised Governor Newsom for making fun of the president’s “all-caps megalomania and his absurdity” with a new style of X posts, mimicking the president’s affinity for capital letters. 

Mr. Comey said people should not follow in Mr. Newsom’s footsteps, however, arguing that they should follow Ms. Swift’s advice of keeping your own peace. 

“She’s made clear that she sees Donald Trump for what he is, and last year she urged Americans not to make the serious mistake of electing him,” Mr. Comey told his fans. “While our elderly, makeup-covered president is posting about whether Taylor Swift is still ‘hot,’ and declaring that he can’t ‘stand’ her, what’s she doing? Living her best life.”

He specifically referenced Ms. Swift’s appearance on the podcast with her boyfriend and his brother. “She said something about dealing with internet trolls that stuck with me: ‘Think of your energy as if it’s expensive,’ she said, ‘As if it’s like a luxury item. Not everyone can afford it,’” Mr. Comey said, quoting her. 

He referenced a concert he went to more than a decade ago, during which Ms. Swift sang about happiness and one’s ability to not be dragged into negativity. 

“At my second Taylor Swift concert in Hartford, Connecticut 14 years ago this summer, she sang a song about [happiness],” he said. “She spoke directly to the nasty people: ‘I bet you got pushed around, Somebody made you cold, But the cycle ends right now, ‘Cause you can’t lead me down that road.’”

“That’s right, because down that road is unhappiness. Nobody should have that power over us. Thank you, Taylor Swift,” Mr. Comey said at the end of his video.