In December, Time named US singer Taylor Swift its 2023 Person of the Year, but in 2024, The Independent reported that she ended up in the headlines for all the wrong reasons.
US responds ‘Taylor Swift asset’ theory: The incident began on January 10 when Jesse Watters, the anchor of Fox News, referred to pop singer Swift as one of the most famous persons in the world and asked his audience if they were curious about how she become a well-known figure.
“During a NATO meeting, the Pentagon’s psychological operations team suggested using Taylor Swift as an asset, perhaps four years ago. What kind of resource? a psy-op to counteract false information on the internet,” he stated on his show.
A psychological operations specialist (psy-op) is a someone who engages in covert psychological operations to sway public opinion, feelings, and behaviour. The military, government, or police typically hire psy-ops.
“Yeah, that’s real,” he remarked, playing a video clip of someone discussing Swift’s influence. NATO was approached by the Pentagon’s psy-ops division about using Taylor Swift as a resource.
The US authorities became aware of the claims and disregarded Watters’ assertion regarding the 34-year-old musician.
Referring to one of Swift’s greatest songs, Pentagon spokesman Sabrina Singh told Politico, “As for this conspiracy theory, we are going to shake it off.”
Singh continued, “But that does underscore the fact that, in order to avoid any financial difficulties, Congress must still approve our supplemental budget proposal as soon as possible.
Further, Based on Pollstar’s 2023 year-end charts, Swift’s Eras Tour became the first tour to reach the $1 billion mark.
According to the music trade newspaper, Swift’s historic Eras Tour not only became the most successful tour in history, both globally and in North America, but it also made an incredible $1.04 billion in revenue, with 4.35 million tickets sold over 60 tour dates.