Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, the former Republican governor of California, mocked the conspiracy theories spread by part of the American right about Taylor Swift, saying in an interview with Variety magazine that they do not surprise him.

“Remember: everything is “planted”. COVID was “planted”. The vaccine was “planted”. And she is, of course, “planted,” he said with a laugh.

“There are agents everywhere. The CIA is behind all this. I now see very clearly how everything is “rigged,” he mocked the situation, but added that “it’s fun.”

The former Republican politician’s comments came in the context of Taylor Swift being the subject of the craziest conspiracy theories circulating on social media in the United States. The latest alleges that the American artist is a Pentagon pawn recruited by the Democratic Party to influence the results of the November 2024 presidential election.

“Ever wonder why Taylor Swift is everywhere? “Four years ago, the Pentagon’s psychological operations department came up with the idea of ​​using it as a resource at a NATO conference,” Fox News host Jesse Watters said on one of his shows in January, showing footage of US cyber security and disinformation in 2019. Agency summit.

But the video showed no connection between the singer and the Pentagon or any other government agency. In fact, it was a presentation by a non-NATO researcher who cites Taylor Swift as a simple example of influencers on the Internet.

Watters also mentioned on the same show the sudden increase in traffic on the Vote.org platform after the singer’s Instagram post, in which she invited her approximately 270 million fans to register to vote by signing up for what he believed to be “someone” who would influence her with White House.

Taylor Swift was also targeted by QAnon

Following Time magazine’s 2023 Person of the Year, the 34-year-old broke all records with her ‘Eras ​​Tour’ last year, and her private life has also been the subject of much public scrutiny, especially since the start of her highly publicized relationship with the star of American football by Travis Kelsey.

Personal attacks followed. Far-right commentators have accused Taylor Swift of performing black magic during her concerts, while conservative personality Charlie Kirk has questioned whether the pop star is “still fertile” on his podcast.

“Swift, by her own admission, is not only a satanic witch, but also a tool of the Pentagon to influence the votes of thousands of young voters,” a user of an account promoting conspiracy theories from the QAnon movement.

All of this came before the recent Grammys, which brought Swift the album of the year award for a record fourth time.

For University of Michigan professor Swapnil Rai, “the speech is overly sexist because it’s much easier to attach such strange theories to a woman.”

Pro-Trump Republicans are concerned about the singer’s influence among young people

In December, far-right commentator Laura Loomer also described the 2024 US presidential election as a showdown between “MAGA and Swifties”, pitting supporters of Donald Trump against singer Taylor Swift.

If Taylor Swift is not a pawn of the Pentagon, then her electoral support is still in the center of attention on the eve of the elections.

“No one has more influence on electoral support than Swift,” said David Jackson, a professor at Bowling Green State University.

Taylor Swift, naturally reticent about her political beliefs, has openly endorsed Joe Biden against Donald Trump in 2020, accusing the Republican politician of “fanning the flames of white supremacy and racism throughout (or) his tenure.”

In the past, the artist advocated for the rights of LGBT+ people and spoke out against the decision of the Supreme Court to cancel the constitutional guarantee of the right to abortion.

The Republican Party is “concerned about its ability to reinvigorate young people’s interest in the electoral process,” said Johanna Blackley of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.