The Pentagon has been shaking off a conspiracy theory claiming that pop queen Taylor Swift is part of a government “psyop.” The outlandish idea gained widespread popularity when it was presented to the primetime viewers of Fox News on Tuesday, courtesy of host Jesse Watters. The host floated out that a few years back the “Pentagon psyop unit pitched NATO on turning Taylor Swift into an asset for combating misinformation online.”
Watters shared a video from a 2019 conference organized by the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defense Center of Excellence. In the video, a presenter cites Swift as a prime example of a powerful influencer. Seems like an awful lot of “Blank Space” to fill to make this Taylor Swift conspiracy theory work. However, Watters did confess that he couldn’t back up his claim about Swift being a covert agent for a hidden political agenda.
In response, Sabrina Singh, spokesperson for the Pentagon, clapped back with a reference to yet another one of Swift’s songs. “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,” she said in a statement to Politico.
Taylor Swift Has Yet to Address the Latest Conspiracy Theory
Swift has chosen not to address the haters hating, which some analysts believe is fueled, in part, by the backlash against her collaboration with Vote.org to encourage civic participation. However, the CEO of that organization, Andrea Hailey, did weigh in. “Not a psy-op or a Pentagon asset,” she wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “Just the biggest nonpartisan platform in America helping young people register & cast their vote.”
Meanwhile, Taylor Swift recently went through a conspiracy theory of a different sort. Swift and Selena Gomez attended the 2024 Golden Globes on Sunday. Swift’s movie Eras Tour received nominations for its success at the box office and in cinema. She attended the event with Keleigh Teller as her date. Gomez was also nominated for Only Murders in the Building, for Best Female Actor in a Musical or Comedy.
During a commercial break at the awards show, the trio engaged in an intense conversation. At one point Swift and Teller are visibly surprised by Gomez’s close interaction with them. Internet sleuths were convinced that the gossip concerned Kylie Jenner and Timothée Chalamet.
However, on Tuesday, Gomez addressed the rumors on Instagram, setting the record straight. She clarified that she had shared with Taylor about a situation where two of her friends had hooked up. She emphasized that it was not anyone’s business.