Former President Trump's supporters are going after Taylor Swift amid chatter about whether the superstar could wade into the 2024 election with a coveted endorsement for President Biden.
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Conservatives in both traditional media and social media have been launching conspiracy theories against the pop superstar, something that ramped up after The New York Times reported that the Biden campaign was actively hoping for her endorsement.
Trump, who is usually not shy about speaking his opinion, so far has stayed out of the fray, although Rolling Stone reported this week that the former president's allies are pledging a "holy war" against Swift, especially if she sides with Democrats in November. .
Vivek Ramaswamy, a former presidential candidate who has thrown his support behind Trump, is perhaps the most high-profile Republican to go after the singer so far, stoking theories that the NFL is rigging football games for Swift's Kansas City beau as Democrats look for her. endorsement.
"I wonder who's going to win the Super Bowl next month," Ramaswamy wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. "And I wonder if there's a major presidential endorsement coming from an artificially culturally propped-up couple this fall."
But other people in the broader MAGA world have also been weighing in, including fringe figures such as Laura Loomer and Jack Lombardi, as well as more mainstream personalities such as Fox News host Jeanine Pirro, who warned Swift not to “get involved in politics. "
An attack on Swift would carry significant risks for Trump, given his existing vulnerabilities with women and young people.
"Waging a war on Taylor Swift is certainly not a way to win over the young voters and women that they've been hemorrhaging because of their stance on so many issues and the people, the abusive men that they've elevated into positions of power. ,” said Kaivan Shroff, press secretary for the Gen-Z progressive group Dream for America.
Just this week, a poll from Quinnipiac University underscored Trump's weaknesses with women, who make up a large part of Swift's fanbase. The survey found Biden opening up a 6-point lead over the former president amid growing signs of a gender divide, with 58 percent of women saying they support the incumbent.
That poll has only amped up fears that Trump's unpopularity with women could cost him in what is expected to be a close election. He has long been accused of sexism and recently sparked criticism for his attacks on primary rival Nikki Haley in the wake of his victory in New Hampshire.
Meanwhile, Biden has faced his own sagging poll numbers with young voters, who have criticized the president for his age and his handling of the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. That has raised hopes among Republicans that they could peel off a significant portion of that demographic in November — although Trump also faces challenges with them. A recent Economist/YouGov survey found that voters under 30 would overwhelmingly support Biden over him in November.