A blonde-haired blue-eyed pop star nicknamed “Miss Americana” and her Superbowl-winning boyfriend sound like the American Dream made manifest.
So why do conservatives and alt-right commentators in the US hate Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce so much?
They’ve claimed without evidence that the couple are part of a grand conspiracy to rig the 2024 US election.
In a twisted way, “they hate them because they love them” lecturer at the Australian National University National Security College James Mortensen told The Feed.
In the early stages of Swift’s career there was a deep hope the musician would come out as a right-winger, Mortensen said.
“She looked the part … a formerly popular but now defunct alt-right blog called her an ‘Aryan Goddess'”.
described her as an “alt-right pop icon”, noting her whiteness, blondeness, unrevealing clothes, lack of piercings, and controversy around her 2015 music video for Wildest Dreams which was accused of using colonialist tropes.
The alt-right movement, which came to the fore during Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, is a loose grouping that rejects mainstream politics and includes neo-Nazis, white supremacists and antisemites.
Taylor Swift breaks apolitical stance
In 2018, Swift endorsed Phil Bredesen, the Democratic candidate for the Senate in her home state of Tennessee.
In breaking from her apolitical stance, she became the subject of a barrage of online hate that is arguably as intense as it ever has been, including but not limited to
Shortly afterwards Swift said she regretted not making political statements earlier and in 2020 she endorsed Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, who went on to claim the presidency.
Some felt rejected by Swift, Mortensen said.
“She’s got a lure, she’s got power. Everybody wants to be on the same side as Taylor, and you thought that you were, and then you wake up one day and realise that actually you ain’t.
“If you find out that you’re on the wrong team, then you’ve got to go on the attack.”
The Taylor Swift election theory
Now, as many as one in five Americans, including one in three Republicans, believe Swift is part of a conspiratorial plan to re-elect President Joe Biden.
According to the Polling Institute at Monmouth University in New Jersey, most of these people also say they would vote for Donald Trump in the upcoming election and also believe the 2020 one was rigged.
Vivek Ramaswamy, who ran as a 2024 Republican presidential candidate before withdrawing in January, implied the NFL Superbowl was rigged by operatives somehow controlling Swift and Kelce.
“I wonder who’s going to win the Super Bowl next month,” Ramaswamy posted on X.
Ramaswamy added: “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.”
Many commentators have called this “the Taylor Swift conspiracy theory”.
A US defence department spokesperson told Politico: “as for this conspiracy theory we are going to shake it off”.
Kansas City Chiefs player Travis Kelce has attracted new fans to NFL as girlfriend Taylor Swift has appeared at matches cheering him on. Source: AAP / Julio Cortez
But Mortensen said that while the idea Swift rigged the Superbowl and is in a fake relationship is conspiracy, it’s possible that she will work with Biden’s team or at the very least endorse him as a candidate.
“We have to be very conscious of separating what is legitimate public discourse, ie endorsing a presidential candidate versus illegitimate completely unsubstantiated claims that a man and a woman are in a relationship purely because of some deep state cabal that is trying to influence middle America through propaganda.”
Biden has “leaned into the idea that these people who spout this stuff are insane” , Mortensen said.
Following the Kansas City Chief’s Superbowl win, the President’s official X account posted a photo of his laser-eyed, alter ego “Dark Brandon” — a meme co-opted by Biden’s social media team that started as a right-wing criticism.
Celebrity endorsements of presidential candidates are standard practice in the US, where voting is not mandatory.
Polling conducted for Newsweek magazine by London-based consulting firm Redfield & Wilton Strategies suggests another Swift endorsement wouldn’t help Biden much.
Around 55 per cent of respondents said it wouldn’t sway them either way, while 17 per cent said they would vote for Biden and 18 said they wouldn’t, if Swift endorsed him.
