Nine months from election day, US President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign must be getting increasingly exasperated. The US economy’s rebound from the Covid-19 pandemic is the envy of the world, but consumers remain gloomy. Job numbers are up and inflation is down, but the President has received scant credit. Attempts to take a firm line with Israel, meanwhile, have done nothing to stem heavy criticism from young voters. It can come as no surprise that Donald Trump leads in the latest polls of all key battleground states.

With age-old strategies thus far failing to deliver, and an increasing sense in some quarters that it may be “vibes” as much as policy that will swing the outcome in 2024, the campaign has set its sights on another way to win votes: an endorsement by global pop megastar Taylor Swift.