A new survey regarding a recent conspiracy theory about a hugely popular performer, Taylor Swift, finds that a meaningful number of Americans believe the pop star has been deployed as a covert operative to aid in the re-election of President Biden.

The survey of 902 Americans conducted by the Monmouth University Poll found that just less than half of Americans, 46 percent, have heard something about Ms. Swift’s supposed role as a covert government asset, and nearly one in five, 18 percent, believe that she is the center of a government conspiracy to re-elect Mr. Biden.

Among those who believe in the supposed conspiracy, 73 percent also believe that the 2020 election was stolen, and 83 percent of them said they were likely to support President Trump this November.

“The supposed Taylor Swift PSYOP conspiracy has legs among a decent number of Trump supporters,” pollster Patrick Murray said in a memo accompanying the poll. “Even many who hadn’t heard about it before we polled them accept the idea as credible. Welcome to the 2024 election.”

The conspiracy theory that Ms. Swift is a government asset has been playfully entertained in recent weeks by some radio and TV hosts, including a Fox News personality, Jesse Watters.

“Have you ever wondered why or how she blew up like this?” Mr. Watters asked during a January broadcast. “Well around four years ago the Pentagon psychological operations unit floated turning Taylor Swift into an asset,” he said, referencing a presentation on social media influencers.

Mr. Watters added: “What kind of asset? A psy-op for combating online misinformation.”

“She posted the link to vote.org — hundreds of thousands of young Taylor Swift fans suddenly registered to vote,” Mr. Watters said. “I wonder who got to her from the White House or from wherever.” 

The Pentagon responded to Mr. Watters’s insinuation, with spokeswoman Sabrina Singh telling Politico “as for this conspiracy theory, we are going to shake it off.”

“But that does highlight that we still need Congress to approve our supplemental budget request as Swift-ly as possible so we can be out of the woods with potential fiscal concerns,” Ms. Singh added.

In terms of Ms. Swift encouraging her fans to register to vote, most Americans, 68 percent, support her effort, according to the Monmouth survey.

Less than half of Republicans, 42 percent, were supportive of Ms. Swift’s efforts, while 88 percent of Democrats and 71 percent of independents backed the get-out-the-vote effort.

Mr. Biden’s campaign has even gotten in on the Swift-centric discourse. A recent TikTok by the BidenHQ account referenced a theory that the White House had rigged the National Football League season so that the Chiefs would win the Super Bowl. Ms. Swift is a Chiefs fan due in part to her widely publicized romance with a celebrated player with the team, Travis Kelce.

“Deviously plotting to rig the season so the Chiefs would make the Super Bowl, or are the Chiefs just being a good football team?” a staffer asked Mr. Biden in the video.

Mr. Biden responded: “I’d get in trouble if I told you.”

The Monmouth survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.1 points.