The Kansas City Chiefs became back-to-back Super Bowl champions on Sunday. The victory solidified Taylor Swift’s status as chief right-wing anti-hero.
For weeks now, conservatives have been floating unhinged conspiracy theories accusing Swift of dating Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce as part of a deep-state plot to help President Joe Biden win the 2024 general election in November. It’s certifiably insane, but as with most conspiracy theories believers are able to twist reality into a confirmation. For some right-wing influencers, the Chiefs victory all but confirmed that Joe Biden had rigged the Super Bowl, and that Swift’s endorsement would follow shortly.
Swift has not yet commented on her views regarding the upcoming election and did little more to draw the right’s ire than have fun supporting her boyfriend at a few football games — but new data shows the conspiracies surrounding her are gaining traction, especially among conservatives.
A new Monmouth University poll has found that 1 in 5 Americans believe “a covert government effort for Taylor Swift to help Joe Biden win the presidential election actually exists.” Unsurprisingly, that number is far larger amongst conservative voters, with 32 percent of them believing in some sort of government conspiracy involving Swift.
Seventy-one percent of those who believe in some kind of conspiracy “identify with or lean toward the Republican Party” and 83 percent indicated “they are likely to support Donald Trump in the fall.”
“The supposed Taylor Swift PsyOp conspiracy has legs among a decent number of Trump supporters. Even many who hadn’t heard about it before we polled them accept the idea as credible. Welcome to the 2024 election,” Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute, said in a statement announcing the data.
Despite the subset of individuals who’ve bought into the claims, two-thirds of those polled support efforts by Swift to encourage her fans to register to vote, and only 13 percent had an unfavorable view of the artist.
For what it’s worth, Swift and her beau seem completely unbothered by the whole thing. In an interview given to CBS before the Super Bowl, Kelce shrugged off the outlandish claims about his relationship.
“You’re all crazy,” Kelce said while laughing. “Every last one of you, you’re crazy.”
