The Department of Defense clapped back at Fox News host Jesse Watters on Wednesday after he said Taylor Swift could be a “psyop” for the Pentagon.
“I wonder who got to her from the White House or wherever,” Watters said on his show Tuesday night. “Who makes that initial handshake.”
Waters was referencing a partnership between Swift and Vote.org intended to encourage young people to register to vote.
The remark spawned conspiracy theories suggesting Swift could be a government asset or part of a broader information campaign.
Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh shut down the speculation Wednesday in a statement to Politico.
“As for this conspiracy theory, we are going to shake it off,” she said, a tongue-in-cheek reference to one of the pop star’s hits.
“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,” she continued, adding more references to Swift hits.
Vote.org chief Andrea Hailey also pushed back on the implications Wednesday.
“Not a psy-op or a Pentagon asset,” she wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “Just the biggest nonpartisan platform in America helping young people register & cast their vote.”
Swift has exploded in popularity in recent years, particularly among young people, and has been outspoken on political issues in the past.
Young voters typically lean Democratic, but President Biden appears to be losing ground with the demographic. A recent New York Times/Siena College poll showed former President Trump ahead of Biden by 6 points among registered voters under 30.