Fact Check

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce Said They'll Leave US If Trump Wins 2024 Election?

The claim resurfaced during the 2024 Republican National Convention.

Published July 19, 2024

 (Getty Images)
Image courtesy of Getty Images
Claim:
Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift announced that they would leave the United States if Donald Trump wins the 2024 presidential election.

During the 2024 Republican National Convention, posts appeared on the social media site X claiming that Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce had announced they would leave the country if Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election:

(X user @usanews0)

We found no evidence the couple had made such an announcement.

The claim originated in February, when the Kansas City Chiefs, Kelce's team, won Super Bowl LVIII on a walk-off touchdown pass in overtime. Some people believed there was a grand conspiracy afoot, and everything was going according to plan.

The real story started a few weeks into the 2024 NFL season, when Kelce and Swift began dating publicly. Over the next few months, the Kansas City Chiefs, already one of the most talked-about teams in the NFL, became the subject of even greater scrutiny. Sports commentators couldn't decide whether the Chiefs were a good team or not, especially when they lost a few winnable games in the last few weeks of the season. 

But in the playoffs, the Chiefs found a second wind, winning their way into the Super Bowl over teams that some experts thought were better. At that point, the conspiracy theories began: The NFL was rigged and referees would throw games to ensure that the Chiefs (and therefore Taylor Swift's boyfriend) would win the Super Bowl.

Some commentators went further. Former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy theorized on X (formerly known as Twitter) that after the Chiefs won the Super Bowl, Swift and Kelce would publicly endorse Joe Biden in the 2024 presidential election. 

So when the Chiefs came back to win a Super Bowl that the 49ers dominated for long stretches, anyone who believed the theories might have been worried. An X post claiming that Kelce and Swift had publicly stated they would leave the country if Trump won might have confirmed some of those fears. 

But we found no reputable sources reporting on the supposed statement from Kelce and Swift. Given the intense media scrutiny around Swift and Kelce, if the two had ever made such a statement, news organizations from sports blogs to major newspapers would have reported it.

Because we found that no media outlets had covered the supposed news, we rate this claim as "False."

Sources

"Chiefs Are Winning, but Their Offense Is Starting to Get a Little Concerning." Yahoo Sports, 13 Oct. 2023, https://sports.yahoo.com/chiefs-are-winning-but-their-offense-is-starting-to-get-a-little-concerning-153312246.html.

"Chiefs' Path Back to Super Bowl Stage Looked Much Different than Past Runs." USA TODAY, https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/chiefs/2024/01/28/chiefs-back-in-super-bowl-but-path-looked-much-different/72391356007/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2024.

Grathoff, Pete. "National NFL Media Has a Lot of Theories on Why Chiefs Are Struggling on Offense." Kansas City Star, 27 Dec. 2023, https://www.kansascity.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/for-petes-sake/article283545968.html.

"Https://Twitter.Com/DonaldTNews/Status/1756789329706258878." X (Formerly Twitter), https://twitter.com/DonaldTNews/status/1756789329706258878. Accessed 12 Feb. 2024.

"Https://Twitter.Com/VivekGRamaswamy/Status/1751944730114498838." X (Formerly Twitter), https://twitter.com/VivekGRamaswamy/status/1751944730114498838. Accessed 12 Feb. 2024.

"Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce's Relationship Timeline." Peoplemag, https://people.com/taylor-swift-and-travis-kelce-relationship-timeline-7974203. Accessed 12 Feb. 2024.

Jack Izzo is a Chicago-based journalist and two-time "Jeopardy!" alumnus.