A show on Fox News touted a conspiracy theory that pop sensation Taylor Swift was involved in a Pentagon operation to use her fan base to gain support for President Joe Biden last week.
On Jesse Watter's Fox News program, Jesse Watters Primetime, he acknowledges what he called pure speculation that Taylor Swift worked for the government.
“So is Swift a front for a covert political agenda?” Watters asked the camera and spectators. “‘Primetime’ obviously has no evidence — if we did, we’d share it. But we’re curious.”
Within the same program, he suggested that her success in her field was likely due to government assistance in getting there.
"I like her music. She's all right, but I mean, have you ever wondered how or why she blew up like this?" Watters says. "Well, around four years ago, the Pentagon psychological operations unit floated turning Taylor Swift into an asset during a NATO meeting. What kind of asset? A psyop of combating online misinformation."
Pentagon seizes pun opportunity
Though Taylor Swift's representatives did not immediately respond to US media for comment, the Pentagon struck back.
US media reported that Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh denied the allegations and even referenced a Taylor Swift hit song in her statement, “As for this conspiracy theory, we are going to shake it off.”