Fact Check: Video Allegedly Shows Taylor Swift Holding a 'Trump Won, Democrats Cheated' Flag at the Grammys. Here Are the Facts.

Jordan Liles
·2 min read
1.2k
A video purportedly showed Taylor Swift holding up a flag on the red carpet at the 2024 Grammy Awards that said Trump won and Democrats cheated.
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Claim:

A video shared in early 2024 showed Taylor Swift holding up a flag at the 2024 Grammy Awards that read, "Trump Won, Democrats Cheated."

Rating:

Rating: Fake
Rating: Fake

On Feb. 4, 2024, a user on X named il Donaldo Trumpo (@PapiTrumpo) – whose account mentions that it posts "a little bit of parody" – posted (archived) a video that appeared to show 14-time Grammy Award-winning recording artist Taylor Swift holding up a flag while walking the red carpet that read, "Trump Won, Democrats Cheated."

While the video may have appeared obviously fake to some users, Elon Musk's social media platform X still showed a label that was displayed under the post that identified it as "manipulated media," adding a link to "find out more" and "stay informed."

The link in the "manipulated media" label led to a policy page on help.twitter.com, which showed that remnants of the old name "Twitter" could still be found on the platform. The page began, "You may not share synthetic, manipulated, or out-of-context media that may deceive or confuse people and lead to harm ('misleading media'). In addition, we may label posts containing misleading media to help people understand their authenticity and to provide additional context."

The original video posted by Variety on Feb. 4 showed Swift simply walking the red carpet and posing for photos, holding no flags or banners of any kind.

As Snopes previously reported, Swift's past expressions of her political beliefs were somewhat the opposite of the idea of embracing false conspiracy theories about the 2020 U.S. presidential election. For example, she previously expressed views in opposition to the politics of former U.S. President Donald Trump and U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee – who are both Republicans – in the 2020 documentary "Miss Americana" and on her Instagram account.

Sources:

Liles, Jordan. “Did Taylor Swift Wear a ‘Nope Not Again,’ Anti-Trump T-Shirt in 2024?” Snopes, 18 Jan. 2024, https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/taylor-swift-trump-shirt/.

“Our Synthetic and Manipulated Media Policy.” X Help, https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/manipulated-media.

“Taylor Swift | Artist.” GRAMMY.com, https://grammy.com/artists/taylor-swift/15450.

@Variety. X, 4 Feb. 2024, https://twitter.com/Variety/status/1754308552317976807.