Group showing Taylor Swift (left) and Ray Dalio.
Getty Images (left) | CNBC (right)
Hedge fund billionaire Ray Dalio attended Taylor Swift's Eras Tour in Singapore, posting a selfie from the crowded venue with a caption explaining why he thinks the megastar should be the next US president.
“@TaylorSwift for president!” Dalio wrote on Thursday. “I just saw her in concert in Singapore and realized that she can bring Americans together with people in most countries much better than any of the candidates, and that bringing people together is the most important thing.”
He added: “Watching this concert with people from all over the world made me feel comfortable and connected and reminded me how powerful this global culture is.” “Wouldn't it be great if we had two candidates who could drive that culture and make smart leadership decisions as well?”
While the post was likely made as a joke, politicians and pundits are well aware of the record-breaking Grammy-winning singer's powerful influence and massive fan base.
Swift's efforts to vote in 2020 motivated tens of thousands of young people to register to vote in a single day. And the reputation she gained for supporting Joe Biden's campaign against former President Donald Trump that year fueled right-wing conspiracy theories that she was being used as a tool in the hands of Democrats or even the Pentagon and the CIA in this year's presidential race.
While some Republican lawmakers and television pundits suggest Swift is part of an orchestrated conspiracy to bring about the end of the Biden administration, her fans responded with, “You need to calm down.” Swift made no endorsement of the 2024 election, but she encouraged her 228 million Instagram followers to vote in a post on Tuesday for the Super Tuesday primaries.
Dalio, founder of Bridgewater Associates, the world's largest hedge fund, had previously stressed what he believed was the need for a more centrist approach in dealing with American politics. Many voters have expressed dismay at the prospect of a rematch between Trump and Biden, and are bracing for a tough campaign season in the summer and fall, when the rivals' bad blood risks stoking further polarization in the country's politics.
“What we need is a very strong middle,” Dalio said at a Malian forum in November.
He added: “We have irreconcilable differences between parties that will not accept loss.”
He said at the time that he saw former US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley as the most promising candidate. He may now be hoping that Swift will fill the empty space left by Haley's recent departure from the race.
Taylor Swift performs in Cincinnati, Ohio, on June 30, 2023, during her Eras Tour.
Taylor Hill / TASS23 | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images
The Eras Tour is the highest-grossing concert tour in history, encompassing 152 shows on five continents over 21 months.
Since launching her tour, Swift has become a billionaire and boosted the economies of several cities and states. The US Federal Reserve in 2023 cited its concerts as providing significant economic boosts to US cities, and some analysts estimated that by October of that year, the shows and subsequent gold rush of travel and fan spending had 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.
