National security officials are used to shaking off absurd conspiracy theories, but the latest rumor that’s gripped MAGA world just hits different.
The claims by Fox News and far-right influencers that pop star Taylor Swift is part of a Pentagon “psychological operation” to get President Joe Biden reelected, and somehow rig the Super Bowl to benefit Kansas City Chiefs tight end (and Swift’s boyfriend) Travis Kelce, has been met with forehead slaps in the national security world.
“The absurdity of it all boggles the mind,” said one senior administration official, granted anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly on the matter. “It feels like one of those ‘tell me you are a MAGA conspiracy theorist, without telling me you are a MAGA conspiracy theorist’ memes.”
Uh… what? Fox News is the biggest right-wing propaganda platform in the world and it (still) exists to influence opinion. They’ve hosted him and his sycophants and election-denyers, etc multiple times. They might have briefly looked into how to insulate themselves after paying out almost a billion dollars for lies, but they’re still all-in for Trump and the MAGA crowd, believe it…
Well, I’m not American and I don’t watch Fox News, so I didn’t realize that they were the ones pushing this Taylor Swift conspiracy narrative. Also, it feels like it wasn’t that long ago that I heard MAGA was going to boycott Fox.
That was a thing for a bit because Fox walked back some of the more extreme narratives they pushed to shield themselves from legal liability. Some of the more extreme MAGA conspiracy nuts still swear off of Fox News in favor of Newsmax and OAN. My grandma is one of them; watched Fox News religiously all her life until 2021, when she switched to Newsmax, OAN, and various “prophets” who claim to have a direct line to God who tells them Trump is the second coming of Christ.