Taylor Swift's Far-Right Critics Float Epic Conspiracy Theory

Make no mistake: President Biden would love to get an endorsement from Taylor Swift, as he did in 2020. In fact, his team views that as the "biggest and most influential endorsement" to be had in the coming election, the New York Times reports. That may play some small part in the conspiracy theory being floated by Swift's critics on the far right—that she's in cahoots with the NFL to rig games in favor of boyfriend Travis Kelce's Kansas City Chiefs, all in a bid to help Biden defeat Donald Trump. Also, the relationship with Kelce may have been cooked up as part of the plan, perhaps by the Pentagon. It's a lot to unpack.

• "I wonder who's going to win the Super Bowl next month," tweeted Vivek Ramaswamy. "And I wonder if there's a major presidential endorsement coming from an artificially culturally propped-up couple this fall. Just some wild speculation over here, let's see how it ages over the next 8 months."

• Pro-Trump broadcaster Mike Crispi came right out and called the Chiefs' victory against the Ravens, which propelled them to the Super Bowl, "rigged," per CNN. He predicted Swift and Kelce would make a halftime appearance to endorse Biden. "The Democrats' Taylor Swift election interference psyop is happening in the open," declared far-right figure Laura Loomer. "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" campaign.
• "Have you ever wondered why or how she blew up like this?" Jesse Watters of Fox News said earlier this month in a discussion of Swift's fame. "Well, around four years ago, the Pentagon psychological operations unit floated turning Taylor Swift into an asset during a NATO meeting."
• Kelce, meanwhile, has run afoul of the MAGA base because he has done commercials for Pfizer's COVID vaccine, as well as for Bud Light, which was beset by a trans controversy, notes the New Republic. In September, meanwhile, Swift demonstrated her clout when she urged her fans to vote, and 35,000 new registrations were logged in a single day, per NPR.
• A separate New York Times story on all this puts things in context: The NFL's "fan base is huge and diverse, but it includes a profoundly conservative element that cheered on the star quarterback Aaron Rodgers' one-man crusade against COVID vaccines and jeered Black players who knelt during the national anthem." What's more, writes Jonathan Weisman, the "Swift-Kelce storyline, for some, has delivered a bruising hit to traditional gender norms, with a rich, powerful woman elevating a successful football player to a new level of fame."

(More Taylor Swift stories.)