Conspiracy theory

US right-wingers tremble at “secret agent” Taylor Swift

In the midst of the election campaign in the USA, conspiracy theories about superstar Taylor Swift are gaining momentum in right-wing circles. The background to this is that the successful singer backed Democrat Joe Biden ahead of the 2020 presidential election. Now there are fears that the extremely popular 34-year-old could campaign for the Democrats.

The right-wing smear campaign against Swift gained new momentum after football player Travis Kelce's team, the Kansas City Chiefs, qualified for the Super Bowl in a week and a half. The Super Bowl is the sporting event of the year in the USA and Kelce is Taylor's boyfriend. The couple's relationship has recently attracted a lot of attention, partly because the 34-year-old was present at Kelce's team's games - and then all eyes were on her (see picture below).

"I wonder who will win the Super Bowl," wrote Republican former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy on X (formerly Twitter). "And I wonder who an artificially hyped couple will support as presidential candidates this fall." Republicans fear that Swift could use her as-yet unconfirmed presence at the event to campaign for Biden and his Democrats.

"This woman has made a career out of writing songs about electing the wrong man," a spokeswoman for former President Donald Trump said earlier this week. It is therefore to be expected that she will also back the wrong man in the presidential election on November 5.

Pentagon: "Will shake off conspiracy theory"
However, conspiracy theories about Swift had already been doing the rounds in right-wing circles. The absurd speculation went so far that the Pentagon felt compelled to take a stand in mid-January. Presenter Jesse Watters had previously suggested on his TV show on right-wing conservative Fox News that Swift could be a secret agent of the US Department of Defense.

"As for this conspiracy theory, we're going to shake it off," spokeswoman Sabrina Singh told Politico in a statement - making a tongue-in-cheek reference to Swift's mega-hit "Shake It Off" and other jokes.