Mixture displaying Taylor Swift (L) and Ray Dalio.
Getty Photographs (L) | CNBC (R)
Hedge fund billionaire Ray Dalio attended Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour in Singapore, and posted a selfie from the packed venue together with a caption explaining why he thought the megastar ought to be the subsequent president of the US.
“@TaylorSwift for President!” Dalio wrote Thursday on Instagram.
“I simply noticed her at her live performance in Singapore and realized that she will be able to deliver collectively Individuals and folks in most international locations significantly better than both of the candidates, and that bringing individuals collectively is crucial factor,” Dalio wrote.
“Watching this live performance with individuals 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 it’s nice if we had two candidates who could lead on that tradition and make good management choices too?”
Whereas the put up was doubtless made in jest, politicians and pundits know all too properly of the record-breaking Grammy award successful singer’s highly effective affect and massive fan base.
Dalio later tweeted an replace, elaborating on his mind set when he made the primary put up, and explaining it.
“Re: my Taylor Swift for president! feedback, no I wasn’t drunk (although clearly I have to work on my selfies) and sure it was a joke, which is a half-truth,” Dalio wrote within the put up on the social media web site X.
“The half that is true is that I feel she will be able to deliver individuals collectively rather a lot higher than both of the presidential candidates…”
Swift’s get-out-the-vote efforts in 2020 spurred tens of 1000’s of younger individuals to register to vote in a single day.
And the repute she gained supporting Joe Biden’s marketing campaign in opposition to former President Donald Trump that yr have fostered right-wing conspiracy theories that she’s being deployed as a device of the Democrats and even the Pentagon and CIA for this yr’s presidential race.
Whereas some Republican lawmakers and tv pundits counsel Swift is a part of a masterminded plot to attain the Biden administration’s endgame, her followers have replied with “you want to relax.” Swift has not made any endorsements for the 2024 election, however inspired her 228 million Instagram followers to vote in a put up on Tuesday for the Tremendous Tuesday primaries.
Dalio, the founding father of Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund, has beforehand careworn what he believes is the necessity for a extra centrist method 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’ dangerous blood dangers stoking additional polarization within the nation’s politics.
“What we want is a really sturdy center,” Dalio mentioned at a monetary discussion board in November.
“We now have irreconcilable variations by sides that won’t settle for dropping.”
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 current departure for the race.
Taylor Swift performs in Cincinnati, Ohio, June 30, 2023, throughout her Eras tour.
Taylor Hill/tas23 | Getty Photographs Leisure | Getty Photographs
The Eras Tour is 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 turn into a billionaire and boosted the economies of quite a few cities and states, surpassing many forecasters’ wildest desires. 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. economic 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 economic system within the first quarter of this yr, in response to a survey of economists revealed by Bloomberg.
