It’s a Sunday during football season, so this is normally where we tell you about the singer Taylor Swift‘s arrival at a football stadium, where she will go to a glass box above the seats to watch her boyfriend, the Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelceplay. And it all happened this afternoon: Swift arrived at Arrowhead Stadium, home of the Chiefs in Kansas City, Missouri, more than an hour before kickoff for the 4:25 p.m. ET game against the Cincinnati Bengals, smiling calmly as she walked through the tunnel in a vintage-look, oversized Chiefs T-shirt that she wore as a dress and Mr. and Mrs. Smith-worthy thigh-high boots. Just looking at her calm expression, you would never guess that, in the same way he has reportedly encouraged deadly violence against so many other people (including his own vice president), the GOP candidate for president Donald Trump made it clear that he hated Taylor Swift.

It’s a move that’s been in the works for months. In early 2024, Trump expressed concern that Swift wouldn’t endorse him, shortly after reportedly crowing that he believed he was more popular than the billionaire musician. Seemingly aware of the handwriting on the wall (Swift did, after all, endorse President Joe Biden in the 2020 election), Trump promoted AI-generated images of Swift that falsely suggested she supported his campaign. She’s been living in his head, rent-free, for months, which must have been particularly painful for a landlord known for his alleged fondness for evictions.

Taylor Swift arrives at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium prior to a game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Cincinnati Bengals on September 15, 2024 in Kansas City, Missouri.

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Trump’s “long-running preoccupation” (as the New York Times (says it) with Swift building steam after she announced — in a social media post that doesn’t mention Trump by name once — that she would be voting for the Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election. The announcement led to a wave of donations for Harris, as well as a seemingly veiled threat from Trump that Swift would “pay a price for it.”

It’s unclear what that price will be, as Swift fans who offered to provide Trump fans with Eras Tour tickets have largely come back empty-handed, as her tour gears up to tour the Republican-held states of Florida, Louisiana and Indiana in October and early November.

Taylor Swift arrives at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium prior to a game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Cincinnati Bengals on September 15, 2024 in Kansas City, Missouri.

Jamie Squire/Getty Images

It’s likely that Swift and her team didn’t give it a second thought when they planned those dates in what may well be MAGA territory. After all, Swift is capable of cultivating relationships with people who may not share her political views, as evidenced by her comfortable public conversations with rumored Trump supporters. Brittany Mahomeswho is married to Kelce’s boyfriend and Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes.

But while Mahomes seems content to respect Swift’s beliefs, Trump has appeared less flexible. In a flurry of messages on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump announced, “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!” Angry? Sure. Crazy? Probably! But also dangerous, say people like former News from the New York Times columnist and cattle And Succession producer France.

In response to Trump’s outburst, Rich noted that Swift had faced terrorist threats abroad, a reference to a foiled plot for violence during her shows in Vienna, Austria. She alleged that Trump and her running mate JD Vance “are eager to stir up domestic terrorism,” Rich points out, noting that Swift will be on tour in Trump country until a few days before the election. The connection, Rich seems to suggest, is clear.

Just a hypothesis, to be sure, but one that seems to be supported by the many times Trump has used vague language in the past to stoke the menacing flames of his supporters. By targeting Swift with a word as potent as “hate,” it’s hard to read his all-caps sentence as anything other than a threat.

Shortly after reports emerged from West Palm Beach, Florida, that Secret Service agents opened fire at Trump’s golf club after “what appears to be an attempted assassination,” the Chiefs and Bengals began Game 2 of the 2024-25 NFL season. Given that, and Trump’s comments earlier today, Swift’s team is likely urging her to lower her profile until this bizarre, confusing era of attempted intimidation ends.

But for now, she’s still there (albeit under increasingly tight security), cheering from the stands at America’s most popular sport. She hasn’t responded to Trump’s remarks, and she probably won’t, if the comments she made weeks after the Vienna plot are any indication.

“Let me be very clear: I will not speak publicly about anything if I think it might provoke those who want to harm the fans who come to my shows,” she said at the time. “In cases like this, ‘silence’ is really showing restraint and waiting to express yourself at a time when it is right.”