President Joe Biden is reportedly seeking TayTay’s endorsement once more in order to swing this year’s US presidential election – something which has led to some outrageous conspiracy theories. Here’s the breakdown.
ADVERTISEMENTAre they never, ever, ever getting back together? Or should Republicans be worried?
Whatever Taylor Swift does, be it the success of the Eras Tour, her relationship or her appearances at NFL games, it’s headline news. We here at Euronews Culture are guilty like the rest of them (whilst humming ‘Cruel Summer’ for the 17th time today).
And the discourse is increasingly zeroing in on her politics.
After breaking her years of political silence in 2018 to back Democrat candidates in the US midterm elections and endorsing President Biden in 2020 through a video message on her Instagram, the Biden administration is reportedly seeking another Taylor Swift endorsement – one which could prove crucial.
How has it come to this?
Well, quite aside from being one of the world’s biggest superstars and a business savvy artist, when Taylor speaks, her fans listen. And that goes for politics too.
For instance, in September last year, the singer posted a short message on Instagram encouraging her 272 million followers to register to vote. Afterward, the website she directed her fans to - the nonpartisan nonprofit Vote.org - reported a 1,226% jump in participation in the hour after the post. The number of 18-year-olds registered was more than double 2022's figures.
And it’s not just the US – this year, Brussels has asked Swift to mobilise young voters ahead of the elections to the European Parliament.
Considering this year’s US presidential election is looking like it’s going to give everyone a nightmarish case of déjà-vu, with a Biden-Trump face off that will melt our collective faces and tighten quite a few sphincters, the backing of someone like Swift could prove instrumental for Democrats. And when taking into account Biden’s approval rating at the moment (54.8 % disapproval as of 30 January, according to American opinion poll, analysis and politics website 538), the current president’s second term is far from a done deal.
Could the pop sensation give him the boost he so desperately needs?
California Governor Gavin Newsom certainly thinks so.
Newsom has made public appeals for Swift to promote the Democrats, saying that Swift’s influence will have “a profoundly powerful impact on the 2024 US presidential election.”
“What she was able to accomplish just in getting young people activated to consider that they have a voice and that they should have a choice in the next election, I think, is profoundly powerful,” he told TMZ.
And Conservatives think so too. Clearly, otherwise they wouldn’t be scrambling to discredit, blast, even threaten the pop star.
According to Rolling Stone, Republican and Conservative media figures have discussed the matter of Taylor Swift’s likely endorsement of Biden with Donald Trump. The publication reports that behind the scenes, Trump has reacted to the possible scenario “not with alarm, but with an instant projection of ego”.
How so? Well, Trump has apparently privately claimed that he is “more popular” than Swift is and that he has more committed fans than she does.
He’s probably still very sore that he was not named TIME magazine’s 2023 Person of the Year - an honour that went to... You know or guessed it.
Predictably, Fox News had their say.
ADVERTISEMENTHost Jeanine Pirro, who was an informal political adviser to Trump, warned Swift to stay away: “Don’t get involved. Don’t get involved in politics; we don’t want to see you there.”
“Joe Biden is in a hole with young people, he knows it," she added. "And if he thinks Taylor can get him out of that hole, he’s gonna go for it."
Also on Fox News, sports broadcaster Charly Arnolt begged Swifties to not vote for Biden, refocused the debate on Swift’s carbon footprint when touring, and concluded by saying: "Please don’t believe everything Taylor Swift says. We’re all begging you.”
Arnolt quoted a recent poll that says that apparently one fifth of Swift fans would back whichever candidate she endorsed, adding: “Let’s be honest, a lot of her fanbase are 15-year-old girls who can’t vote anyways.”
Ouch.
ADVERTISEMENTBut ouch right back at Arnolt, as a 2023 Morning Consult survey found that 45 per cent of Swifties are millennials (between the ages of 27 and 42) and only 21 percent are Gen Z (26 and under).
So, very much of voting age...
It’s not just Fox News getting worried, mind you.
American entrepreneur and 2024 Republican race drop out Vivek Ramaswamy recently suggested that the National Football League (NFL) will rig the upcoming Super Bowl to increase publicity for Taylor Swift and her partner, Kansas City Chiefs’ Travis Kelce.
(In case you haven’t been following the latest updates, the Chiefs recently won the AFC championship, which has punched their ticket to the Super Bowl next month.)
ADVERTISEMENT"I wonder who’s going to win the Super Bowl next month. And I wonder if there’s a major presidential endorsement coming from an artificially culturally propped-up couple this fall," he posted X – possibly wearing a tin hat and definitely playing footsie with ring-wing conspiracy theorists. “Just some wild speculation over here, let’s see how it ages over the next 8 months.”
Cue: outrageous claims that Swift and Kelce are part of the deep state, plotting to sway this year’s election, and that the NFL are in cahoots.
“I have never been more convinced that the Super Bowl is rigged,” X-posted the right-wing influencer Jack Lombardi, after the Chiefs defeated the Baltimore Ravens 17-10. “With all the unneeded and unwanted Taylor coverage at the games. KC’s journey to the Super Bowl – totally scripted. Next… Travis and Taylor together at the Super Bowl, appearing happy, and in love. Then KC wins. And then later announcing their support for Biden.”
Lombardi’s then doubled down: “This is the ol, cheerleader falling for the football star story. And it has one purpose, to capture and manipulate the feelings of American women. And once Taylor has their attention, she will endorse Joe Biden, which was they goal the whole time. And as a father of little girls, it is my job to project their feelings from manipulation like this. So as a girl dad, I am disgusted.”
For those of you wondering, “girl dad” is not just about signalling that you have a daughter, but used as a rather pathetic way of trying to get your point across without being accused of misogyny or chauvinism. Essentially, a pathetic online defence mechanism to claim legitimacy and mask toxicity because you happen to have a female child.
ADVERTISEMENTBut back to the very hinged pundits.
Podcast host Mike Crispi chipped in, posting that the NFL “is totally RIGGED for the Kansas City Chiefs, Taylor Swift, Mr. Pfizer (Travis Kelce). All to spread DEMOCRAT PROPAGANDA.”
(“Mr. Pfizer” is the right-wing nickname for Kelce, who dared to promote the Covid-19 vaccine. Catchy.)
Trump die-hard and “proud Islamophobe” Laura Loomer also weighed in when she wrote on X that “the Democrats’ Taylor Swift election interference psyop is happening in the open… It’s not a coincidence that current and former Biden admin officials are propping up Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce. They are going to use Taylor Swift as the poster child for their pro-abortion GOTV Campaign.”
As you can see, MAGA is in full meltdown mode.
ADVERTISEMENTLoomer followed it up by “shaming” the New York Post for “putting a picture of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce making out on the football field above the headline regarding the 3 US Servicemen who were killed in the drone strike in Jordan yesterday This is really vile. Our country has zero priorities.”
As for far-right influencer Rogan O’Handley, he suggested that if the Chiefs won the Super Bowl, there could be more global repercussions...
“You MUST defeat the Chiefs,” O’Handley wrote in an X post addressed to the San Francisco 49ers. “If you don’t, Mr. Pfizer and his girlfriend are going to tour the country as ‘world champions’ helping elect Joe Biden WW3 will likely follow in a 2nd Biden term and millions will die. The fate of the free world rests upon your shoulders”
The words 'hinged’, ‘reasonable’ or the phrase ‘modicum of sanity’ are ones that come to mind when scrolling through hundreds of similar posts that cast Taylor Swift as the future Typhoid Mary and a government weapon ready to be unleashed.
And she hasn’t even endorsed Biden yet.
ADVERTISEMENTOne thing is abundantly clear: Outspoken or not, Swift is getting to the MAGA crowd, and so many of these reactions betray a deep and persistent worry that her endorsement for Biden could have a quantifiable impact.
Then again, having one of Euronews Culture’s People of the Year will do that to you.
