On Sunday, Taylor Swift – one of the world's most popular popstars – was in Baltimore to cheer on star Kansas City Chief tight end Travis Kelce as his team secured a trip to the Super Bowl. At the game’s end, Swift took to the field and greeted Kelce with a kiss that became a national moment unto itself. 

The ballooning phenomenon surrounding the pair’s romantic relationship, which began budding during the NFL’s regular season last fall, has merged her massive fandom with the country’s most-watched sport. With the Super Bowl coming up, their relationship has sparked speculation if Swift can fly from a concert in Japan to Las Vegas, the site of the game, and even flight numbers inspired by the two public figures. 

If boosted television ratings are any indication, the football world has appeared to be excited by and welcoming to her presence at games and connection to one of the NFL’s most successful teams in the last decade, appearing in four Super Bowls since 2019 and winning two of them. But her and Kelce’s relationship has drawn outrage and anger from far-right figures who appear to fear the impact a potential endorsement of President Joe Biden would have on the 2024 presidential election.

“I wonder who’s going to win the Super Bowl next month. And I wonder if there’s a major presidential endorsement coming from an artificially culturally propped-up couple this fall,” wrote former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy on social media on Monday, baselessly suggesting the nation’s largest sporting event was rigged to help his political enemies. “Just some wild speculation over here, let’s see how it ages over the next 8 months.”

Ramaswamy, now a major booster of former President Donald Trump, was not alone among his faction of right-wing politics to spread conspiracy theories and express animosity towards Swift and Kelce. Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba shared a post critical of Swift on Instagram. Trump ally Laura Loomer joined Ramaswamy in speculating Swift’s popularity was being artificially inflated to eventually help Biden’s “pro-abortion” get-out-the-vote efforts.

Fox News’ “Jesse Watters Primetime,” the second most-watched cable news show in the country, ran a segment earlier in January accusing Swift of being a Pentagon-backed “psyop,” or psychological operation being enacted by the military on the unexpected U.S. populace. That’s an idea that has spread across right-wing social media and other TV networks like One America Network and Newsmax.

And Kelce has come under attack for his sponsorship deals with Bud Light, which drew right-wing ire for partnering with a transgender social media influencer last year, and Pfizer — for which he promotes the coronavirus vaccine despised by the anti-vaccine factions of the American right.

“There are whole hosts of issues that we could be working on together. The economy, affordable housing, public safety, national security, the challenges at the border,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said at a press conference on Thursday. “Extreme MAGA Republicans have chosen to spend the week focused on [the impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro] Mayorkas and Taylor Swift. That's their agenda. It's performative politics.”

Much of the angst appears to derive from the American right’s fear that Swift will once again endorse President Joe Biden in his likely reelection battle with Trump, the 2024 GOP primary’s frontrunner. While she endorsed Biden in 2020 and other Democrats in the years since, Swift’s stardom has only grown: her “Era’s Tour” generated $1 billion between March and November of last year, the highest grossing tour of all time as it enters its second year.

Biden’s campaign is reportedly vying for Swift’s endorsement, which it views as a significant voter turnout and fundraising opportunity, according to the New York Times. And according to Rolling Stone, Trump’s campaign is reportedly fearful of the impact her endorsement could have on the race.

“We no longer watch, listen or discuss the same things. Television shows and musicians can be incredibly successful but unknown to large swaths of the country. The two biggest exceptions to this new reality are Taylor Swift and football,” wrote former Obama administration communications director Dan Pfieffer in his newsletter on Thursday, adding: “Having a bizarre meltdown over Taylor Swift, Travis Kelce, and the Super Bowl is... weird and Americans don’t elect... weirdos. Just ask Ron DeSantis.”

Swift’s stadium tour averaged 72,500 attendees across 60 shows. In 2020, Biden beat Trump by a combined 44,000 votes in the key swing states of Georgia, Arizona and Wisconsin. Had the now-president lost those states, the two candidates would have tied in the Electoral College vote. Swift has yet to speak publicly on the 2024 election, but a single Instagram story from the pop music giant last September encouraged thousands of people to register to vote.

“I don't think it's marginal. I've never seen a cultural phenomenon, especially in the modern era,” said Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, one of Republicans’ most prominent youth leaders, on his talk show on Wednesday. “I think that if she did a selfie video and said ‘Go vote for Biden,’ I think it could move millions of votes.” 

The CBS broadcast of Sunday’s Chiefs-Baltimore Ravens game was the most watched AFC championship in NFL history — to the tune of 55.5 million viewers, according to estimates from Nielsen. But while Swift has garnered plenty of media attention, she has barely featured in the broadcasts themselves: the New York Times reported she was on screen for just 32 seconds of the over three-hour long game, 17 of which were part of a promotion for CBS’ upcoming broadcast of the Grammys.

“I’m just there to support Travis,” she told Time magazine for their December “2023 Person of the Year” profile. “I have no awareness of if I’m being shown too much and pissing off a few dads, Brads, and Chads.”

Some Republicans have offered praise for Swift, differing from her far-right detractors. Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Ka., a Chiefs fan, told Politico the conspiracy theories were “nonsense” and called her and Kelce’s relationship “an American love story.” And in an interview with Newsmax on Wednesday, right-wing Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., praised the musician who emerged out of Nashville in the early 2000s. Swift called Blackburn “Trump in a wig” in a documentary released in 2020.

“Taylor Swift is a really popular, talented young woman,” Blackburn said, adding of Swift’s insult: “I just ‘Shake it Off.’”

Despite the criticism from certain corners of the right, Swift has her supporters in the sports world.

"There’s a lot of weird, lonely, insecure men out there,” Fox Sports host Colin Cowherd, who cheered on House Republicans in 2022, said on his show on Tuesday. “Judge people sometimes on the silly stuff that bothers them.”