A man in Ellis Country, Texas, spent $4000 USD on a guitar signed by Taylor Swift at an auction only to smash the instrument to bits with a hammer.
As TMZ first reported, the yet-to-be-identified man purchased the guitar, which was covered in images of Swift, during the annual Ellis County Wild Game Dinner, an organisation that, according to its website, raises money to support “agricultural and rural education” for young people in the area.
In a video that has now gone viral online, the man can be seen grabbing the guitar before hitting it repeatedly with a hammer.
He’s egged on by cheers from the crowd and one man shouting, “Smash it on the ground”.
While the exact motivation for the man’s actions remain unclear, it’s thought that he smashed the guitar because of Swift’s endorsement of Democratic presidential hopeful Kamala Harris.
In fact, one attendee, Rob Bartley, told The Independent that while the destruction of the instrument was unexpected, it wasn’t surprising.
“This part of Texas leans heavily conservative and the Biden/Harris administration isn’t held in high regard,” he said. “A lot of the working class people that live around me feel that the administration gone from not working for us to working against us.”
Indeed, the hammer-wielding man isn’t the only person to become enraged following Swift’s endorsement of Harris.
In a post on his social media platform Truth Social, Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump wrote: “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!”
In her Instagram post in which she set out her support for Harris, Swift said that she would be voting for the Democratic nominee “because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them”.
She added: “I think she is a steady-handed, gifted leader and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos.”
Swift also spoke out against Trump for using AI-generated images of her likeness, which falsely showed her endorsing him.
“It really conjured up my fears around AI, and the dangers of spreading misinformation,” she wrote. “It brought me to the conclusion that I need to be very transparent about my actual plans for this election as a voter. The simplest way to combat misinformation is with the truth.”
In the 24 hours after Swift posted her endorsement, it was reported by Variety that over 400,000 people visited the vote.org website.
Meanwhile, Swift will pick up her record-breaking Eras Tour in Miami on 18 October.