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    <title>Aaj TV English News - Life &amp; Style - Entertainment</title>
    <link>https://english.aaj.tv/</link>
    <description>Aaj TV English</description>
    <language>en-Us</language>
    <copyright>Copyright 2026</copyright>
    <pubDate>Wed, 22 Apr 2026 18:48:38 +0500</pubDate>
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    <ttl>60</ttl>
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      <title>US govt responds to ‘Taylor Swift a Pentagon asset’ theory</title>
      <link>https://english.aaj.tv/news/30347878/us-govt-responds-to-taylor-swift-a-pentagon-asset-theory</link>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Named &lt;a href="https://www.aajenglish.tv/news/30343295/taylor-swift-named-times-person-of-the-year-capping-her-record-breaking-2023"&gt;Time’s 2023 Person of the Year in December&lt;/a&gt;, US singer Taylor Swift found herself in the news for all the wrong reasons in 2024, &lt;em&gt;The Independent&lt;/em&gt; reported.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The drama started when Fox News host Jesse Watters on January 10 asked his viewers if they wondered how &lt;a href="https://www.aajenglish.tv/trends/taylor-swift"&gt;Swift&lt;/a&gt; became a prominent personality, referring to the pop star being among the most famous people in the world.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;“Around four years ago, the Pentagon psychological operations unit floated turning Taylor Swift into an asset during a NATO meeting. What kind of asset? A psy-op for combatting online misinformation,” he said during his show.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A psy-op is a person who secretly participates in psychological operations — usually recruited by the government, military or the police — to influence the beliefs, emotions and behavior of the masses.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;    &lt;figure class='media  w-full  w-full  media--stretch  media--embed  media--uneven'&gt;
        &lt;div class='media__item  media__item--twitter  '&gt;&lt;span&gt;
    &lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"&gt;
        &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/JesseBWatters/status/1744899360159109185?s=20"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
    &lt;/blockquote&gt;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
        
    &lt;/figure&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Playing a video clip of a person talking about Swift’s influence, he said, “Yeah, that’s real. The Pentagon’s psy-op unit pitched NATO on turning Taylor Swift into an asset.”&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;    &lt;figure class='media  sm:w-1/3  w-full  media--right  media--embed  media--uneven'&gt;
        &lt;div class='media__item  media__item--newskitlink  '&gt;    &lt;iframe
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        src="https://www.aajenglish.tv/news/card/30347758"
        sandbox="allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-popups allow-modals allow-forms"&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
        
    &lt;/figure&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The accusations drew the attention of the US government which in response shut down Watters’ claim about the 34-year-old singer.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;“As for this conspiracy theory, we are going to shake it off,” Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh told &lt;em&gt;Politico&lt;/em&gt;, referencing one of Swift’s biggest hits.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;“But that does highlight that we still need Congress to approve our supplemental budget request as Swift-ly as possible so we can be out of the woods with potential fiscal concerns,” Singh added.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Swift’s Eras Tour became the first tour to cross the billion-dollar mark, according to Pollstar’s 2023 year-end charts.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Not only was Swift’s landmark Eras Tour the No. 1 tour both worldwide and in North America, but she also brought in a whopping $1.04 billion with 4.35 million tickets sold across 60 tour dates, the concert trade publication found.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
      <content:encoded xmlns="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/"><![CDATA[<p><strong>Named <a href="https://www.aajenglish.tv/news/30343295/taylor-swift-named-times-person-of-the-year-capping-her-record-breaking-2023">Time’s 2023 Person of the Year in December</a>, US singer Taylor Swift found herself in the news for all the wrong reasons in 2024, <em>The Independent</em> reported.</strong></p>
<p>The drama started when Fox News host Jesse Watters on January 10 asked his viewers if they wondered how <a href="https://www.aajenglish.tv/trends/taylor-swift">Swift</a> became a prominent personality, referring to the pop star being among the most famous people in the world.</p>
<p>“Around four years ago, the Pentagon psychological operations unit floated turning Taylor Swift into an asset during a NATO meeting. What kind of asset? A psy-op for combatting online misinformation,” he said during his show.</p>
<p>A psy-op is a person who secretly participates in psychological operations — usually recruited by the government, military or the police — to influence the beliefs, emotions and behavior of the masses.</p>
<p>    <figure class='media  w-full  w-full  media--stretch  media--embed  media--uneven'>
        <div class='media__item  media__item--twitter  '><span>
    <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
        <a href="https://twitter.com/JesseBWatters/status/1744899360159109185?s=20"></a>
    </blockquote>
</span></div>
        
    </figure></p>
<p>Playing a video clip of a person talking about Swift’s influence, he said, “Yeah, that’s real. The Pentagon’s psy-op unit pitched NATO on turning Taylor Swift into an asset.”</p>
<p>    <figure class='media  sm:w-1/3  w-full  media--right  media--embed  media--uneven'>
        <div class='media__item  media__item--newskitlink  '>    <iframe
        class="nk-iframe" onload="setInterval(()=>{try{this.style.height=this.contentWindow.document.body.scrollHeight+'px';}catch{}}, 100)"
        width="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="height:400px;position:relative"
        src="https://www.aajenglish.tv/news/card/30347758"
        sandbox="allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-popups allow-modals allow-forms"></iframe></div>
        
    </figure></p>
<p>The accusations drew the attention of the US government which in response shut down Watters’ claim about the 34-year-old singer.</p>
<p>“As for this conspiracy theory, we are going to shake it off,” Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh told <em>Politico</em>, referencing one of Swift’s biggest hits.</p>
<p>“But that does highlight that we still need Congress to approve our supplemental budget request as Swift-ly as possible so we can be out of the woods with potential fiscal concerns,” Singh added.</p>
<p>Swift’s Eras Tour became the first tour to cross the billion-dollar mark, according to Pollstar’s 2023 year-end charts.</p>
<p>Not only was Swift’s landmark Eras Tour the No. 1 tour both worldwide and in North America, but she also brought in a whopping $1.04 billion with 4.35 million tickets sold across 60 tour dates, the concert trade publication found.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
      <category>Life &amp; Style</category>
      <guid>https://english.aaj.tv/news/30347878</guid>
      <pubDate>Mon, 15 Jan 2024 20:41:05 +0500</pubDate>
      <author>none@none.com (Web Desk)</author>
      <media:content url="https://i.aaj.tv/large/2024/01/1520364725de30e.webp?r=203713" type="image/webp" medium="image" height="480" width="800">
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        <media:title>US singer Taylor Swift arrives for the MTV Video Music Awards at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, on September 12, 2023 ( AFP / ANGELA WEISS)
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