The Kansas City Chiefs have just won the Super Bowl, and that is nice. But just to focus on the real news for one second: Could this mean that Taylor Swift — the global superstar, football enthusiast and onetime Biden endorser — is going to visit the White House?
Asked on Monday whether the White House would extend an invitation to the singer, Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, said that decision was up to the team, not President Biden.
“That’s going to be up to the Chiefs, and obviously, their decision to figure out who’s going to come with them when they come,” Ms. Jean-Pierre said. “And as you know, it’s a White House tradition. I can’t, I can’t speak to attendance and who will be here, but we look forward to having them here.”
Here is some background for the six people on planet Earth who might still need it: Ms. Swift, the pop singer, has been dating Travis Kelce, a tight end for the Chiefs, since at least the fall, embarking on an expanded version of the soft-focus, jock-meets-music-nerd love story that she once divined as a younger songwriter. And Mr. Kelce, the most famous tight end in the National Football League thanks in part to his girlfriend’s star power, is on the team that will receive a traditional invitation from the president to celebrate their win at the White House.
Sports teams invited to the White House generally receive a set allotment of tickets to events, and the administration does not decide the guest list, according to a person familiar with the process who was not authorized to detail it publicly, and significant others do not always come. The supermodel Gisele Bündchen did not visit the White House when Tom Brady, her husband at the time, visited with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2021, for example.
But, that person said, if Ms. Swift wanted to attend, the administration would “make it work.”
A White House visit from Ms. Swift would add fuel to several theories — none of which she has acknowledged herself — that she has the power to bolster Mr. Biden’s re-election bid and sink the prospects of his likely challenger, Donald J. Trump.
