Taylor Swift would win any popularity contest against MAGA

It’s perhaps one of the strangest conspiracy theories of all time.

Some fans of former President Donald Trump believe pop star Taylor Swift has been employed in a kind of covert government operation to prop up Joe Biden’s reelection bid and have therefore tried to stigmatize her.

Polling shows this is a bad idea. Swift is one of the most popular figures in America, and these Republicans are out of step with others in thinking she’s being propped up by the government.

A Monmouth University poll released last week lays out the facts well. Swift comes in with a 39% favorable rating, 13% unfavorable rating and 43% saying they have no opinion of her. Among those with an opinion, 75% had a positive one.

Even among Republicans, she scores a 25% favorable to 18% unfavorable rating. That is, more Republicans like her than dislike her. Of those who had an opinion, 58% viewed her favorably.

This lines up well with a Marist College poll from December that showed similar figures once you exclude those with no opinion.

Trump is far more unpopular than Swift. He has a 45% favorable to a 55% unfavorable rating among those with an opinion, according to an aggregate of recent polling. That puts his favorable rating about 25 to 30 points lower than Swift’s, depending on the poll.

This could be why Trump hasn’t humored his base over the concerns about Swift.

Indeed, it would be hard to find anyone more popular than Swift these days. Her favorable-to-unfavorable ratio is far higher from what I can tell than any current politician nationally.

In some ways, one could consider Swift to be a modern-day Oprah Winfrey. It’s a comparison CNN host Michael Smerconish has made. Swift, like Winfrey, seems to make news no matter where she goes.

The comparison is apt when you think back to Winfrey’s endorsement of Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election. Winfrey was regularly hitting Swift levels of popularity back then, when accounting for those without an opinion.

One study suggested that she got Obama about 1 million votes during his primary battle with Hillary Clinton. That may have been enough to help him win the 2008 Democratic nomination in what was a close contest.