I will admit that I’ve made my fair share of Taylor Swift jokes over the course of the NFL season, particularly during Kansas City Chiefs games when the cameras pan to the pop star sitting in a box suite between every offensive snap.
The Chiefs, like the New England Patriots before them or the NBA’s Golden State Warriors, have achieved the rare distinction of being the greatest active dynasty in team sports, making them a fun team to root against, all while enjoying watching greatness on your TV screen. Fans on X sarcastically blamed Swift anytime her boyfriend, future Hall of Fame tight end Travis Kelce, dropped a pass. We were all in on the bit, or so I thought.
Apparently, some conservatives really are angry at Swift for some reason. Droves of too-online right-wingers are promoting conspiracy theories about the NFL rigging Chiefs games to help President Joe Biden, or some such nonsense. Former presidential candidate and current Trump surrogate Vivek Ramaswamy tweeted, “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.”
If reports from Rolling Stone are to be believed, even former President Donald Trump is bothered by Swift, bragging that he is “more popular” than the 12-time Grammy winner. Not to be outdone, the Biden team has convinced itself that securing an endorsement from Swift would somehow revive the 81-year-old president’s campaign despite the lack of evidence that celebrity endorsements are worth much of anything.
Call me crazy, but I think both the Left and the Right have much bigger fish to fry than either attacking or courting the endorsement of a pop singer. Instead of seeking the endorsements of celebrities, it would behoove the Biden White House to focus on deterring further attacks on U.S. personnel by Iran and its proxies after three American soldiers were killed over the weekend. The president is 15 points underwater with voters in an election year. If he thinks Swift can make independents forget about an economy on the brink and an unprecedented invasion of the southern border, he has another thing coming.
Factually speaking, Trump is not more popular than Swift. An NBC News poll found that Swift enjoys a +24 approval rating with voters. Trump’s highest approval rating clocked in at -4 in December 2016.
The former president should think less about the popularity of musicians and more about becoming more popular than the current occupant of the Oval Office, who bested him over three years ago. It is unclear how going to war with the nation’s most popular artist aids the former president in that quest.
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The 45th president would be wise to spend his time seeking out better legal representation than the aspiring MAGA influencer who just cost him $83 million and figuring out how to win back the votes of suburban white women who abandoned the GOP in 2020.
Campaigning is difficult, and governing is even harder. The fact that Swift is on the minds of our leaders, to begin with, is a testament to their unseriousness in the face of a world full of deeply serious challenges.
Brady Leonard (@bradyleonard) is a musician, political strategist, and host of The No Gimmicks Podcast.