STORY UPDATED: check for updates below.
Did pop star Taylor Swift get photographed holding up a red banner that read "TRUMP WON DEMOCRATS CHEATED!"? No, that's not true: The photo of Swift has been edited to make it look as though she is holding up the banner. In the original photo, she was clasping her hands against her heart, while also clutching the hand of the person standing to her left.
The claim appeared on Instagram (archived here) on January 30, 2024. The caption read:
Is this real? #trump #taylorswift #swifties #kc #trump2024
This is what the Instagram post looked like at the time of writing:
(Source: Instagram screenshot taken on Wed Jan 31 14:08:37 2024 UTC)
The photo seen in the post shows Taylor Swift with an open-mouthed smile holding up a red banner that reads, "TRUMP WON DEMOCRATS CHEATED!"
Searching "Taylor Swift AND 'Trump Won Democrats Cheated' banner" (archived here) in Google News did not yield any credible matches.
Two different reverse image searches of the photo on Instagram did not yield any relevant results (archived here and here). We then reverse image searched only Swift's face (archived here) and found the original image in the catalog of Getty Images (archived here). In the original, the background and foreground match and Swift has the same facial expression; But instead of spreading her arms wide to hold a banner, she is clasping her hands over her heart, as well as the hand of someone standing to her left.
A similar image was seen on X, formerly Twitter. The X post shows Swift on a red carpet holding the same banner. Below is a screenshot of the post:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Tue Feb 6 14:56:15 2024 UTC)
A Google News search of "Taylor Swift AND GRAMMYs 2024 AND red carpet AND Trump Won banner" (archived here) did not yield any significant results.
Other Lead Stories articles on Taylor Swift are here.
Updates:
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2024-02-06T16:29:25Z 2024-02-06T16:29:25Z Added another claim, as seen on X
