Two photos of American artist Taylor Swift holding flags supporting former US President Donald Trump flags, which read "Trump Won, Democrats Cheated!", have gone viral on social media.
What is the claim?: Users claimed that she showed support for former United States of America President Donald Trump.
An archive of the post can be found here.
(Source: X (formerly Twitter)/Screenshot)
This post recorded 4.7 million views at the time of writing this story.
An archive of the post can be found here.
(Source: X/Screenshot)
This post recorded 489.9K views at the time of filing this story.
(Archives of similar claims can be found here, here and here.)
Is this true?: The claims are false as the visuals are digitally altered.
The first visual of Swift in the white gown is from the recent Grammy Awards red carpet. She was wearing long black gloves and could not be seen holding a flag.
The second image is from September 2023. It was taken during a National Football League (NFL) game between the Chicago Bears and the Kansas City Chiefs at the Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri.
How did we find out?: We checked both visuals separately and found the following.
VISUAL 1: We noticed a few hints in the viral video such as the logos of the Grammys, Variety and the Recording Academy.
Here is the close-up of the logos.
(Source: Altered by The Quint)
Considering these, we ran a keyword search on YouTube and came across a video by Recording Academy from 5 February.
The frames of the Academy video matched with the viral video.
Here are the similarities between the two frames.
(Source: Altered by The Quint)
The Recording Academy uploaded the video with the caption that read, "TAYLOR SWIFT on the red carpet at the GRAMMYs."
A similar video was uploaded by the Associated Press (AP) on 5 February.
VISUAL 2: We ran a Google reverse image search on the image and found a similar picture on Getty Images.
Here are the similarities between the two frames.
(Source: Altered by The Quint)
Getty shared this image on their website on 24 September 2024. The description read, "Taylor Swift reacts during a game between the Chicago Bears and the Kansas City Chiefs at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri."
Taylor Swift and Trump: Swift had publicly spoken up against Trump in the past, sharing a post on her X account where she said "We will vote you out in November."
Ahead of the 2020 US Presidential elections, she also shared a post supporting President Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris.
Swift has expressed support for Biden and Harris.
(Source: X/Screenshot)
Conclusion: It is clear that the images have been digitally altered to falsely claim that Taylor Swift show public support for Trump.
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