Combination showing Taylor Swift (L) and Ray Dalio.
Getty Images (L) | CNBC (R)
Hedge fund billionaire Ray Dalio attended a Taylor Swift Eras Tour concert in Singapore, and posted a selfie from the packed venue with the caption explaining why he thought the megastar should be the next president of United States.
“@TaylorSwift for President!” The Bridgewater Associates founder Dalio wrote Thursday on Instagram.
“I just saw him at his concert in Singapore and realized that he can bring together Americans and people in most countries better than any of the candidates, and bringing people together is the most important thing. thing,” Dalio wrote.
“Watching this concert with people from all over the world made me and them happy and connected and reminded me how powerful that universal culture is,” he added. “Wouldn’t it be great if we had two candidates who could lead that culture and also make smart leadership decisions?”
Although the post was probably made in jest, politicians and pundits are well aware of the singer’s powerful influence and huge fan base of the recorded Grammy award winning singer.
Taylor Swift performs in Cincinnati, Ohio, June 30, 2023, during her Eras tour.
Taylor Hill/tas23 | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images
Dalio later tweeted an update, explaining what he was thinking when he made the initial post, and explained it.
“Re: my Taylor Swift for president! comments, no I wasn’t drunk (though obviously I need to work on my selfies) and yes it was a joke, which is a half-truth,” Dalio wrote in a post on the social media site X.
“The half truth is that I think he can bring people together better than any of the presidential candidates and bringing people together is one of the most important things a president has to do.”
Swift’s get-out-the-vote efforts have previously been fueled tens of thousands of young people will register to vote In one day.
And the reputation he earned for supporting Joe Biden’s campaign against former President Donald Trump that year developed right-wing conspiracy theories that he was appointed as a tool by the Democrats or even by the Pentagon and CIA for this year’s presidential race.
While some Republican lawmakers and television pundits have suggested that Swift is part of a masterminded plot to achieve the endgame of the Biden administration, her fans have responded with “you need to calm down.” Swift has not made any endorsements for the 2024 election, but encouraged her 283 million Instagram followers to vote in a post Tuesday for the Super Tuesday primaries.
Dalio, who made Bridgewater the world’s largest hedge fund, has previously stressed what he believes is the need for a more centrist approach to American politics. Many voters have expressed distaste for the prospect of a Trump-Biden rematch, setting the stage for a potentially brutal summer and fall campaign season as the rivals’ bad blood threatens to boil over. of more polarization in the country’s politics.
“What we need is a very strong middle,” Dalio said at a financial forum in November.
“We have irreconcilable differences on sides that will not accept defeat.”
He said at the time that he saw former US ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, as the most promising candidate. Perhaps he is now hoping Swift will fill the void left by Haley’s recent exit from the race.
Taylor Swift performs on stage at night one of Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour at Nissan Stadium on May 05, 2023 in Nashville, Tennessee.
John Shearer/tas23 | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images
The Eras Tour is the most profitable concert tour in history, covering 152 shows on five continents in 21 months.
Since launching her tour, Swift has become a billionaire and boosted the economies of many cities and states, surpassing the wildest dreams of many forecasters. The US Federal Reserve in 2023 cited his concerts as providing a significant economic boost to American cities, and some analysts estimated that by October of that year, the shows and subsequent gold rush of travel and spending would fans had already. added $5.7 billion to the US economy.
In Singapore alone, six consecutive days of concerts are estimated to have added between $225 million to $300 million to the city-state’s economy in the first quarter of this year, according to a survey of economists. published by Bloomberg.