Once again, Taylor Swift’s mere existence is ruffling right-wing feathers.
She’s beautiful.
She’s talented.
She’s a self-made billionaire.
She’s a woman.
They hate her.
One of those Republicans is Fox News’s Jesse Watters, who, on Tuesday, launched a bizarre conspiracy theory about the famous singer that has picked up steam with the right-wing on social media. Swift is part of a government “psyop,” Watters said, while admitting that he has no evidence to back up his wild-eyed claim.
The Daily Beast reports:
On Jesse Watters Tonight, the Fox News host took an interest in how some allies of former President Donald Trump are wondering whether there’s something deeper going on when it comes to Swift.
Former Trump White House adviser Stephen Miller, for instance, wrote last month, “What’s happening with Taylor Swift is not organic.” Jeffrey Clark, a co-defendant of Trump’s in the Georgia racketeering case, called the musician a “Trojan horse” and responded affirmatively to a post by far-right commentator Jack Posobiec that said Swift’s “girlboss psyop has been fully activated.”
And so Watters broached the subject Tuesday by calling attention to a video that Clark had re-shared on X, formerly Twitter, which he claimed showed “the Pentagon psychological operations unit float[ing] turning Taylor Swift into an asset during a NATO meeting.”
Ah, yes, where would any conspiracy theory be without pizzagate enthusiast Jack Posobiec? I’m glad Jesse is listening to the thoughtful Republicans instead of pandering to the crazies.
Like his guest, former FBI agent Stuart Kaplan seemed to take issue with her large following, who said, “immeasurable amount of followers, she can potentially single-handedly swing voters because of just the amount of followers that she potentially can influence.”
“So the answer is yes, Jesse,” he said. “Yeah, because when she posted the link to the vote.org, it’s like hundreds of thousands of young Taylor Swift fans all of a sudden registered to vote.”
“I wonder who got to her from the White House,” Watters said.
And just like that, a conspiracy theory is born. I do hope that Swift has a decent security team.
