Taylor Swift Psyop

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Part of a series on Taylor Swift. [View Related Entries]

Overview

Taylor Swift Psyop, also spelled Taylor Swift Psy Op, is a conspiracy theory about the pop star, her boyfriend Travis Kelce, the NFL playoffs and the 2024 presidential election. The earliest version of the theory was put forth by right-wing activist and conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer, who argued that Taylor Swift made a deal with billionaire businessman and philanthropist George Soros to help her regain the rights to her music in exchange for helping the Democrats win in the 2024 United States Presidential Election and, in particular, politicians Gavin Newsom and Michelle Obama. The conspiracy theory also suggested her rumored relationship with NFL player Travis Kelce was created in order to push COVID-19 vaccines onto Generation Z.

Background

On September 26th, 2023, Laura Loomer^[1] took to Twitter to lay out a conspiracy that Taylor Swift had supposedly made a deal with billionaire philanthropist and Democrat donator George Soros, as well as his son Alex, to help Democrats win the 2024 Presidential Election in exchange for Soros paying for Swift to regain the rights of her music. The tweet gained over 5,800 retweets, 11,000 likes and 430 quote tweets in two days (seen below).

The points of the conspiracy put forth by Loomer are as follows:

- Taylor Swift made a deal with George Soros to aid Democrats in winning the 2024 Presidential Election in exchange for Soros helping her purchase back the rights to her musical catalog. The Soroses previously helped aid Scooter Braun in purchasing her masters in June of 2019. Braun sold those masters years later, meaning the Soroses no longer have control of Swift's old music.
- As part of their deal, Swift pushed for Gen Z voter registration in a social media post.
- Gen Z voter turnout aids California governor Gavin Newsom, who the Soroses supposedly want to win the White House in 2024 (note: Newsom is not considered a contender for the Democratic presidential nomination, and it is expected that Joe Biden will run for re-election with little serious opposition from Democrats in 2024).
- Her "relationship" with Travis Kelce is a psyop to push the COVID-19 vaccine onto Gen Z, as Kelce recently signed with Pfizer to be the face of a COVID-19 booster shot campaign.
- Furthermore, Swift is a fan of Michelle Obama, and the ultimate goal of Swift's deal with Soros is to push a Newsom/Obama ticket in 2024.^[2]

Developments

Coverage In Media

Laura Loomer's conspiracy was covered with tongue-in-cheek skepticism by Newsweek^[3] and Daily Dot^[4] in late September 2023, among other publications.

It also split many readers, as some bought into Loomer's theory while others found it ridiculous. For example, in the former camp, Twitter user @l_bministries^[5] signal boosted Loomer's thread on September 26th, 2023, gaining 20 retweets in two days (shown below, left). In the latter was user @Bawls_plz,^[6] who simply said Loomer needed to be "institutionalized," gaining 20 likes in the same timeframe (shown below, right).

Jesse Watters devoted a segment of his January 9th, 2024, show on Fox News to the Taylor psy-op theory (seen below). The media outlet's official YouTube^[7] channel uploaded the segment the following day, garnering over 99,000 views, 3,000 likes and 750 comments in two weeks.

On January 10th, the Pentagon officially responded to Watters' segment in a statement laden with Swift-inspired puns (seen below), which was widely reported on and spread via social media.^[8]

… as for this conspiracy theory, we are going to shake it off. But that does highlight that we still need Congress to approve our supplemental budget request as Swift-ly as possible so we can be out of the woods with potential fiscal concerns,” Singh added, seizing the opportunity to slyly highlight a Swift song by telling Congress “I Wish You Would” grant the administration its supplemental budget request.

Kansas City Chiefs Win Playoff Game

Leading up to and following the victory of Travis Kelce's team, the Kansas City Chiefs, in a playoff game on January 28th, 2024, which meant the team would advance to the Super Bowl, posting of conspiracy theory content about Swift and Kelce accelerated. For example, X user @EndWokesness posted on January 28th that it was "an op," earning over 39,000 likes in three days (seen below).^[9]

Others, like Republican politician and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy (seen below, top), posted about the Taylor Swift psyop theory as well, linking it to the outcome of the recent Chiefs game. Ramaswamy earned over 16,000 likes in a day on January 29th in response to a January 28th post by rightwing commentator Jack Posobiec, which earned 21,000 likes in the course of two days.^[10]

Conservative commentator Mike Crispi also laid out his take on what would happen at the Super Bowl that day (seen below, bottom), earning over 4,300 likes in two days.^[11]