On Tuesday night (Jan. 9), Fox News' Jesse Watters implied that Taylor Swift might be a psy-op who's been tasked by the Pentagon to sway public opinion.
"Around four years ago, the Pentagon Psychological Operations Unit floated turning Taylor Swift into an asset during a NATO meeting," Watters said. "What kind of asset? A psy-op for combatting online misinformation."
"I wonder who got to her from the White House or wherever," Watters added, referring to Swift's participation in Vote.org's campaign to register more young people to vote. "Who makes that initial handshake?"
Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh issued a statement the following day to Politico that's filled with Swift jokes.
"As for this conspiracy theory, we are going to shake it off," Singh shared. "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."
Vote.org's Andrea Haley posted her own response on Twitter.
"Not a psy-op or a Pentagon asset," Haley wrote. "Just the biggest nonpartisan platform in America helping young people register & cast their vote."
Whoopi Goldberg weighed in on the conspiracy theory on "The View," slamming Fox News in the process.
"There are real issues impacting millions of Americans," Goldberg said. "This is what the Fox News folks wanted viewers to be worried about during their prime-time broadcast on Tuesday."
The psy-op speculation makes for one of the wildest conspiracy theories about Swift, who's had no shortage of unfounded rumors written about her throughout her career.
Swift ended 2023 on yet another historic high note. When 1989 (Taylor's Version) topped the all-genre Billboard 200 albums chart, it marked 68 weeks that a Swift album has sat at No. 1. The previous record holder among solo artists was Elvis Presley, who'd topped the chart for 67 weeks between 1956 and 2002.
Those figures plus the unprecedented box office success of the Eras Tour helped Swift earn Time's Person of the Year honor.
