How Biden and Trump reacted to Taylor Swift, Travis Kelce and the Super Bowl

The Kansas City Chiefs won their second consecutive Super Bowl with a thrilling overtime victory over the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday — and President Biden reacted by mocking conspiracy theories that have been swirling on the far right while embracing a meme about his dark side.

🏈 What Biden said about Chiefs’ win

“Just like we drew it up,” Biden wrote in a post on X that included a photoshopped picture of the president, smiling, with red lasers coming out of his eyes — an image that has come to represent his digital alter ego, Dark Brandon.

A version of the Dark Brandon meme also appeared in a video Q&A posted to the Biden campaign’s official TikTok account, which launched on Sunday.

“Deviously plotting to rig the season so the Chiefs would make the Super Bowl or the Chiefs just being a good football team?” Biden was asked in the video.

“I’d get in trouble if I told you,” the president replied.

🤔 The Swift-Kelce conspiracy

Taylor Swift cheers on the Kansas City Chiefs and her boyfriend, Travis Kelce, at the Super Bowl on Sunday. (Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

The message was a reference to the wild conspiracies triggered by the Taylor Swift-Travis Kelce romance which only seemed to get wilder in the days and weeks leading up to the Super Bowl.

Notable far-right media and political figures, including Fox News host Jesse Watters and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, went so far to suggest that Swift is part of a psychological operation backed by the U.S. government, the NFL and the Democratic Party to help deliver the 2024 presidential election to Biden.

“I wonder who’s going to win the Super Bowl,” Ramaswamy wrote on X late last month. “And I wonder if there’s a major presidential endorsement coming from an artificially culturally propped-up couple this fall. Just some wild speculation over here, let’s see how it ages over the next 8 months.”

🏈 The NFL and Pentagon’s response

Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce celebrates during the trophy presentation as CBS sports personality Jim Nantz looks on. (Ashley Landis/AP)

Ahead of the Super Bowl, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell was asked whether the league and Swift were working together to choreograph the outcome.

“The idea that this was in a script and this was pre-planned — that’s just nonsense,” Goodell said. “It’s frankly not even worth talking about.”

The Pentagon even issued a tongue-in-cheek statement denying the outlandish claim, saying, “As for this conspiracy theory, we are going to shake it off,” a nod to one of her hit songs.

The big picture

Embracing memes and getting a TikTok account is part of a broader strategy by the Biden campaign to appeal to younger voters, especially amid mounting concern over the president’s advanced age.