Taylor Swift is on a European tour! Taylor Swift has a new concert film! Taylor Swift is dating a Kansas City Chiefs player! Taylor Swift is possibly gay! Taylor Swift is rumored to be dating Elvis!
While that final speculation cannot be verified, the pop megastar is seemingly everywhere in the news. She makes headlines not only in entertainment, but in sports, culture and politics as well. In the past year, she has spiked ratings for any National Football League game she attended.
All of this leads naturally to the question: “Is the Pentagon using Taylor Swift as a PsyOps asset on behalf of NATO?”
That question is only partially a joke. Fox News commentator Jessie Waters noted that Johns Hopkins researcher Alicia Marie Bargar suggested at a NATO conference that Swift could be useful as a Pentagon asset to combat “misinformation.”
Is Taylor Swift a Pentagon PsyOp asset? pic.twitter.com/yHp8WywKh8
— Jesse Watters (@JesseBWatters) January 10, 2024
While Swift’s Pentagon connections may be the stuff of Marvel Comics, Swift’s political impact cannot be dismissed so easily.
Earlier in her career Swift had an apolitical public image, leading many to the conclusion that she had no interest in mingling her art with her opinions. Her silence during the polarizing 2016 election was deafening, even leading the Guardian to brand her as “a musical envoy for [Trump’s] values”. Swift indeed began her road to superstardom in the country music genre, one far more associated with conservative principles than the world of pop music into which she crossed over in 2014.
As Michael Scott from the television comedy show The Office stated: “Well, well, well. How the turn tables…”
Since 2018, Swift’s career has indeed done a hard left into a “greatest hits tour” of left-leaning causes and Democrat candidates.
In 2018, she endorsed two Democrat candidates in her home state of Tennessee. These were Phil Bredesen for the United States Senate and Jim Cooper for the House of Representatives. Bredesen’s GOP opponent was Marsha Blackburn, whose voting record Swift roundly criticized, notably on LGBT issues.
In 2020, she allowed her music to be used for political purposes for the first time, in an advertisement for Congressman Eric Swalwell (D-CA).
Her music and public statements have made her a major figure in the LGBTQ movement. Her 2019 hit “You Need to Calm Down” was particularly direct on this issue.
Speculation is that she could play a major role in Biden’s reelection. Far-left California Gov. Gavin Newsome (D) has stated in a TMZ interview that she could be a “profoundly powerful” influence on the 2024 Presidential election.
Swift and her romantic partner Travis Kelsey, tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs, have created an entertainment super couple. While Kelsey has not been a very visible figure in political activism, he has a discernable footprint on left-leaning issues.
He has appeared in advertisements promoting the COVID-19 vaccine for Pfizer. He has also starred in a commercial for Bud Light, which has been controversial in the past year due to its association with transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney. And, back in 2017, he kneeled for the national anthem at NFL games in support of radical Black activist Colin Kaepernick.
While Jessie Waters’ fanciful speculation has been dismissed as “conspiratorial” by some, one cannot dismiss the impact Swift is having on America’s political landscape.
Taylor Swift’s career began at the age of 14 as a songwriter, recording her first album as a country music artist in 2006. She won numerous awards before crossing over to pop music in 2014, where she continued her success, winning numerous Grammys.
