Thomas Watkins is Washington bureau chief at The National
February 14, 2024
Americans need to calm down: Taylor Swift is not part of a shadowy US military plot to help President Joe Biden win re-election in November, the Pentagon said on Wednesday.
It was responding to a national poll that found almost 20 per cent of respondents believe Swift is a government asset.
The unusual denial comes after right-wing conspiracy theorists and Fox News have spent weeks pushing a claim that Swift is part of a Pentagon psychological operation to help Mr Biden.
Travis Kelce, her American footballer boyfriend, who helped propel his Kansas City Chiefs team to Super Bowl glory at the weekend, is also supposedly somehow in on it.
“We know all too well the dangers of conspiracy theories, so to set the record straight – Taylor Swift is not part of a [Defence Department] psychological operation. Period,” Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh said.
“I’m sure she has other chief priorities, as do we,” Ms Singh told me, before continuing with the footballing pun: “Which is why we continue to urge Congress to complete the passage of a budget and our supplemental request so we can move the ball down field and across the goal line in support of critical national security priorities.”
According to a Monmouth University Poll released on Wednesday, just under one in five Americans (18 per cent) believe the Swift conspiracy exists.
Most of these respondents (83 per cent) said they would probably support Donald Trump, the presumed Republican nominee, in November's presidential election.
The claim appears to be rooted in a Fox News segment during which host Jesse Watters played a 2019 clip of a US official, who was speaking at a Nato meeting, floating the idea that social influencers such as Swift could be encouraged to counter covert misinformation from foreign adversaries.
“I like her music. She’s all right. But have you ever wondered why or how she blew up like this?” Watters said.
“Well around four years ago, the Pentagon’s psychological operations unit floated turning Taylor Swift into an asset.”
Fox News is well known for pushing conspiracy theories and framing even routine stories as having some sort of “Deep State” connection.
Fox patriarch Rupert Murdoch last year acknowledged that some of the commentators on his network endorsed former Mr Trump's debunked claims that the 2020 presidential election was rigged, even though the news channel knew they were false.
In April, Fox was forced to pay voting machine maker Dominion $787.5 million in damages after the network knowingly spread misinformation about the company and its supposed role in the 2020 election.
The Republican animus against Swift also stems from her historic contempt for Mr Trump, who she called a racist and potentially violent white supremacist in 2020.
From an overseas perspective, its easy to shrug off the Swift saga as weird America just being weird, but in an age where lies spread faster than the truth, it is worth reminding that the fever dreams of the far-right can have real-world impacts.
I happen to live close to Comet Pizza in Washington, a great family spot for ping pong and pies.
In 2016, it fell victim to another far-right conspiracy theory that set the tone for the years to come, as groups such as QAnon pushed claims that devil-worshipping Democrats feast on the blood and hormones of children as a way to stay forever young. (A look at the gerontocrats running the country should be enough to laugh that one off).
The Pizzagate conspiracy theory posited that kids were being groomed for Democrats in the restaurant's basement.
It was all nonsense, of course, and Comet doesn't even have a cellar. But that didn't stop a true believer driving up from North Carolina to “self-investigate” the madness.
He ended up opening fire with a semi-automatic rifle as he sought to rescue the purported children from the supposed basement. Fortunately, no one was hurt.
The fact that the Taylor Swift theory is so readily believed is a sad reflection of our times.
Even those who should know better are happy to spread nonsense. Elon Musk, for instance, has frequently pushed racist and anti-Semitic claims on his platform X.
The Monmouth University poll does have one less sinister finding, however: Two-thirds of the American public approves of Swift encouraging her fans to vote in the coming election.
In September, she posted a message on Instagram, encouraging her fans to vote. More than 35,000 did so.
Mr Biden's team appears to be trying to capitalise on all this, posting a message on X suggesting the great Swift conspiracy was going to plan after the Kansas City Chief's Super Bowl win.
The biog
DOB: March 13, 1987 Place of birth: Jeddah, Saudi Arabia but lived in Virginia in the US and raised in Lebanon School: ACS in Lebanon University: BSA in Graphic Design at the American University of Beirut
MSA in Design Entrepreneurship at the School of Visual Arts in New York City Nationality: Lebanese Status: Single Favourite thing to do: I really enjoy cycling, I was a participant in Cycling for Gaza for the second time this year
Earth under attack: Cosmic impacts throughout history
- 4.5 billion years ago: Mars-sized object smashes into the newly-formed Earth, creating debris that coalesces to form the Moon
- 66 million years ago: 10km-wide asteroid crashes into the Gulf of Mexico, wiping out over 70 per cent of living species – including the dinosaurs.
- 50,000 years ago: 50m-wide iron meteor crashes in Arizona with the violence of 10 megatonne hydrogen bomb, creating the famous 1.2km-wide Barringer Crater
- 1490: Meteor storm over Shansi Province, north-east China when large stones “fell like rain”, reportedly leading to thousands of deaths.
- 1908: 100-metre meteor from the Taurid Complex explodes near the Tunguska river in Siberia with the force of 1,000 Hiroshima-type bombs, devastating 2,000 square kilometres of forest.
- 1998: Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 breaks apart and crashes into Jupiter in series of impacts that would have annihilated life on Earth.
-2013: 10,000-tonne meteor burns up over the southern Urals region of Russia, releasing a pressure blast and flash that left over 1600 people injured.
Libya's Gold
UN Panel of Experts found regime secretly sold a fifth of the country's gold reserves.
The panel’s 2017 report followed a trail to West Africa where large sums of cash and gold were hidden by Abdullah Al Senussi, Qaddafi’s former intelligence chief, in 2011.
Cases filled with cash that was said to amount to $560m in 100 dollar notes, that was kept by a group of Libyans in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
A second stash was said to have been held in Accra, Ghana, inside boxes at the local offices of an international human rights organisation based in France.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
Developer: Treyarch, Raven Software Publisher: Activision Console: PlayStation 4 & 5, Windows, Xbox One & Series X/S Rating: 3.5/5
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
About Takalam
Date started: early 2020
Founders: Khawla Hammad and Inas Abu Shashieh
Based: Abu Dhabi
Sector: HealthTech and wellness
Number of staff: 4
Funding to date: Bootstrapped
BUNDESLIGA FIXTURES
Saturday
Borussia Dortmund v Eintracht Frankfurt (5.30pm kick-off UAE)
Focus on gratitude: And do so deeply, he says. “Think of one to three things a day that you’re grateful for. It needs to be specific, too, don’t just say ‘air.’ Really think about it. If you’re grateful for, say, what your parents have done for you, that will motivate you to do more for the world.”
Know how to fight: Shetty married his wife, Radhi, three years ago (he met her in a meditation class before he went off and became a monk). He says they’ve had to learn to respect each other’s “fighting styles” – he’s a talk it-out-immediately person, while she needs space to think. “When you’re having an argument, remember, it’s not you against each other. It’s both of you against the problem. When you win, they lose. If you’re on a team you have to win together.”
Number of Chinese tourists coming to UAE in 2017 was... 1.3m
Alibaba’s new ‘Tech Town’ in Dubai is worth... $600m
China’s investment in the MIddle East in 2016 was... $29.5bn
The world’s most valuable start-up in 2018, TikTok, is valued at... $75bn
Boost to the UAE economy of 5G connectivity will be... $269bn
Who has lived at The Bishops Avenue?
George Sainsbury of the supermarket dynasty, sugar magnate William Park Lyle and actress Dame Gracie Fields were residents in the 1930s when the street was only known as ‘Millionaires’ Row’.
Then came the international super rich, including the last king of Greece, Constantine II, the Sultan of Brunei and Indian steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal who was at one point ranked the third richest person in the world.
Turkish tycoon Halis Torprak sold his mansion for £50m in 2008 after spending just two days there. The House of Saud sold 10 properties on the road in 2013 for almost £80m.
Other residents have included Iraqi businessman Nemir Kirdar, singer Ariana Grande, holiday camp impresario Sir Billy Butlin, businessman Asil Nadir, Paul McCartney’s former wife Heather Mills.
Hunting park to luxury living
Land was originally the Bishop of London's hunting park, hence the name
The road was laid out in the mid 19th Century, meandering through woodland and farmland
Its earliest houses at the turn of the 20th Century were substantial detached properties with extensive grounds
The bio
Favourite book: Peter Rabbit. I used to read it to my three children and still read it myself. If I am feeling down it brings back good memories.
Best thing about your job: Getting to help people. My mum always told me never to pass up an opportunity to do a good deed.
Best part of life in the UAE: The weather. The constant sunshine is amazing and there is always something to do, you have so many options when it comes to how to spend your day.
Favourite holiday destination: Malaysia. I went there for my honeymoon and ended up volunteering to teach local children for a few hours each day. It is such a special place and I plan to retire there one day.
