What is it that makes Donald Trump's MAGA crowd so angry about Taylor Swift?
For months leading up to Sunday's Super Bowl game in Las Vegas — where Taylor Swift's boyfriend Travis Kelce, the Kansas City Chiefs tight end, won a second championship ring, MAGA folks have been sputtering and fuming about the world's most successful pop star, accusing her of the most bizarre, impossible things.
Some have said that she is part of a deep state psych-ops conspiracy, directed by the Pentagon, to cast some kind of spell on the young people of America, so that they will worship only the Dark Brandon currently living in the White House.
Some in the MAGA crowd grimly predicted that, in the moments after a Super Bowl victory for the Chiefs (engineered by the deep state, of course), Taylor and her sweaty, tired and jubilant boyfriend, still in his football pads, would march to the center of the stadium and endorse Joe Biden for president.
Just like we drew it up. pic.twitter.com/9NBvc5nVZE
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) February 12, 2024
Vivek Ramaswamy, the failed Republican candidate for president who has become a leading conspiracy theorist of the far right, was one of those fueling the fire of the notion that Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce were at the heart of a deep state conspiracy to swing the 2024 election to President Biden. He wrote this on X, formerly Twitter:
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"I wonder who’s going to win the Super Bowl next month. 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."
I wonder who’s going to win the Super Bowl next month. 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.
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) January 29, 2024
The Cincinnati-born Ramaswamy is a well-established conspiracy theorist, and proud of it. He has said he believes both the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and the 9/11 terrorist attacks were likely "inside jobs." And he says climate change is a "hoax."
Apparently, Taylor and Travis didn't get the script.
Nothing happened in the on-field jubilation in Las Vegas except a big hug and kiss between Taylor and Travis.
Love trumped politics on Sunday.
RELATED: The Swift-Kelce romance sounds like a movie. But the NFL swears it wasn't scripted
Now, Taylor's endorsement may happen at some point. Swift did endorse Biden in 2020. But it hasn't happened yet.
And what if it did?
The MAGA crowd is right about one thing:
Taylor Swift is an extremely influential person, beyond her billion-dollar Eras tour and movie that crushed box office records.
She is smart.
And she has star power.
Her one sin, according to the MAGA world, is that last year, on her Instagram account, she urged her fans to register to vote. She didn’t tell them who to vote for. She simply asked them to vote.
About 35,000 of them did just that.
And they did because Taylor Swift is a role model to untold millions of people, particularly young people. Young people who need some encouragement to exercise their right to vote, to believe in democracy enough to take that one simple step.
She is not in the least bit shy about speaking out on issues important to her. And one of those issues is democracy.
Travis Kelce has had his own dust-up with MAGA World. Anti-vaxxers have been all over the football star because he did an ad for Pfizer urging people to get their COVID shots.
In Travis Kelce — who played college ball as a University of Cincinnati Bearcat — Taylor Swift has a partner who is a success in his own field and clearly in love with her; and she with him.
That should make people happy. It makes MAGA World angry.
And it makes Donald Trump jealous.
His political foes may or may not have the world's most popular and beloved entertainer on their side.
He has the transphobic anti-vaxxer Kid Rock on his side.
It's not a fair fight.
"Think of it from Trump's point of view," said David Niven, political science professor at the University of Cincinnati. "Taylor Swift is as rich as he pretends to be. She is as famous and popular as he dreams of being."
"Donald Trump is simply jealous of Taylor Swift," Niven said.
Sunday, hours before the Super Bowl, Trump posted on his Truth Social website a plea to Taylor and Kelce, saying they should endorse him and not Biden.
"I signed and was responsible for the Music Modernization Act for Taylor Swift and all other Musical Artists. Joe Biden didn't do anything for Taylor and never will. There's no way she could endorse Crooked Joe Biden, the worst and most corrupt President in the History of our Country, and be disloyal to the man who made her so much money.
"Besides that, I like her boyfriend, Travis, even though he may be a Liberal, and probably can't stand me!"
You may not be surprised to learn that Trump's claim of being "responsible" for the 2018 Music Modernization Act is simply not true.
This legislation was a major reform to copyright law, aimed at updating royalty and licensing rules to support musicians in a time of downloading and streaming music. It was introduced by a bipartisan group of legislators before Trump became president.
It passed the House and Senate unanimously.
The only thing Donald Trump did was pick up a pen and sign it into law.
Donald Trump never "made her so much money," as he said in his Truth Social post.
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Taylor Swift became the most successful musical talent on the planet because she is very talented, works hard, is a smart businesswoman and untold millions worldwide want what she is selling.
Donald Trump hasn't made a plugged nickel for Taylor Swift. Neither has Joe Biden — not that he's claiming to have done so.
Neither Trump's pleas for love from Swift and Kelce, nor the conspiracy theories of Ramaswamy and others are having any impact at all on America's Sweethearts.
Conspiracy theories about Swift and Kelce play well with Trump's MAGA base, but they can also have a boomerang effect.
It just makes her fans love and support her more.
It's Taylor Swift's power to do that that keeps so many MAGA folks up all night.
