Mixture displaying Taylor Swift (L) and Ray Dalio.
Getty Pictures (L) | CNBC (R)
Hedge fund billionaire Ray Dalio attended a Taylor Swift Eras Tour live performance in Singapore, and posted a selfie from the packed venue together with a caption explaining why he thought the megastar must be the following president of the USA.
“@TaylorSwift for President!” the Bridgewater Associates founder Dalio wrote Thursday on Instagram.
“I simply noticed her at her live performance in Singapore and realized that she will be able to convey collectively People and folks in most international locations significantly better than both of the candidates, and that bringing folks collectively is an important factor,” Dalio wrote.
“Watching this live performance with folks from all around the world made me and them really feel good and related and jogged my memory how highly effective that common tradition is,” he added. “Would not or not it’s nice if we had two candidates who could lead on that tradition and make sensible management choices too?”
Whereas the publish was possible made in jest, politicians and pundits know all too nicely of the record-breaking Grammy award successful singer’s highly effective affect and massive fan base.
Taylor Swift performs in Cincinnati, Ohio, June 30, 2023, throughout her Eras tour.
Taylor Hill/tas23 | Getty Pictures Leisure | Getty Pictures
Dalio later tweeted an replace, elaborating on his way of thinking when he made the primary publish, and explaining it.
“Re: my Taylor Swift for president! feedback, no I wasn’t drunk (although clearly I must work on my selfies) and sure it was a joke, which is a half-truth,” Dalio wrote within the publish on the social media website X.
“The half that is true is that I believe she will be able to convey folks collectively lots higher than both of the presidential candidates and bringing folks collectively is among the most vital issues a president ought to do.”
Swift’s get-out-the-vote efforts have beforehand spurred tens of 1000’s of younger folks to register to vote in a single day.
And the popularity she gained supporting Joe Biden’s marketing campaign towards former President Donald Trump that yr have fostered right-wing conspiracy theories that she’s being deployed as a instrument of the Democrats and even the Pentagon and CIA for this yr’s presidential race.
Whereas some Republican lawmakers and tv pundits recommend Swift is a part of a masterminded plot to realize the Biden administration’s endgame, her followers have replied with “you want to settle down.” Swift has not made any endorsements for the 2024 election, however inspired her 283 million Instagram followers to vote in a publish on Tuesday for the Tremendous Tuesday primaries.
Dalio, who turned Bridgewater into the world’s largest hedge fund, has beforehand confused what he believes is the necessity for a extra centrist strategy to American politics. Many citizens haven’t expressed happiness on the prospect of a Trump-Biden rematch, bracing for a probably merciless summer season and fall marketing campaign season because the contenders’ unhealthy blood dangers stoking additional polarization within the nation’s politics.
“What we’d like is a really robust center,” Dalio mentioned at a monetary discussion board in November.
“We now have irreconcilable variations by sides that won’t settle for shedding.”
He mentioned on the time that he noticed former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, as probably the most promising candidate. Maybe he now hopes Swift will fill within the clean house left by Haley’s latest departure from the race.
Taylor Swift performs onstage throughout evening certainly one of Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour at Nissan Stadium on Could 05, 2023 in Nashville, Tennessee.
John Shearer/tas23 | Getty Pictures Leisure | Getty Pictures
The Eras Tour is probably the most profit-generating live performance tour in historical past, spanning 152 reveals in 5 continents over 21 months.
Since launching her tour, Swift has change into a billionaire and boosted the economies of quite a few cities and states, surpassing many forecasters’ wildest goals. The U.S. Federal Reserve in 2023 cited her live shows as offering vital financial boosts to American cities, and a few analysts estimated that by October of that yr, the reveals and subsequent gold rush of journey and spending by followers had added $5.7 billion to the U.S. financial system.
In Singapore alone, six consecutive days of live shows are estimated to have added between $225 million to $300 million to the city-state’s financial system within the first quarter of this yr, in response to a survey of economists printed by Bloomberg.