Overview

The Taylor Swift Nazi Lightning Bolt Necklace Controversy refers to online debates over whether or not pop star Taylor Swift's "Life of a Showgirl Silver Necklace," a silver necklace with lightning bolt charms running down the chain sold as merch to promote her 2025 album The Life of a Showgirl, is a Nazi dog whistle. The claim started spreading in mid-October 2025 when some people pointed out a perceived similarity between the lightning bolts on the necklace and the Nazi SS, or Schutzstaffel, symbol. The claim was supported by numerous users on sites like TikTok, Threads and X / Twitter, but also received significant pushback from those who believed the accusers were reaching and that the charms were simply meant to be lightning bolts. Additionally, some believers in the conspiracy theory shared the claim that the necklace was 14 inches in length and had a total of eight lightning bolts and eight links, believing this to be a reference to the 14 words / 1488 dog whistle.

Background

To promote her 2025 album The Life of a Showgirl, Taylor Swift released a wide variety of merchandise on her website, including the "Life of a Showgirl Silver Necklace," a silver necklace with lightning bolt charms and a star on the chain. The necklace sold out and is no longer available on her website.

On October 12th, 2025, Threads^[1] user @travelingnurselex posted images of both the necklace and a hat that Swift is selling as merch, claiming in the post that the hat is a "MAGA hat" and that the necklace is a Nazi dog whistle. She writes, "Taylor dropping a MAGA hat and necklace with potential Nazi symbolism was NOT on my bingo card. Can she just come out and say 'hey this is not what I believe, sorry if it came across that way'?? Is that so hard?" garnering over 1,500 likes and 840 comments in four days. This is the earliest known user to call out the necklace.

In a follow-up comment, the same Threads^[2] user shared images comparing the lightning bolts to the SS symbol (or SS runes, which are pseudo-runes), writing, "The apologists under this post need to understand how fucking serious this is. I get that critical thinking is hard and not fun. But we are in a Nazi overthrow of our government and democracy. It IS that FUCKING deep," gaining over 1,000 likes in four days.

Online Reactions

The conspiracy theory spread over the following days, inspiring both support and backlash on social media in mid-October 2025.

On October 12th, 2025, Threads^[3] user @ding_gorgeous made a post criticizing the claim, writing about how the lightning bolts are a reference to the lyrics of the song "Opalite," that lightning bolts are a "sacred symbol of strength, protection, and the vital connection between sky and earth" and that they are not simply Nazi symbols, garnering over 2,100 likes in four days.

Later that day, Threads^[4] user @kelseycombe posted, "If Taylor Swift was a Nazi, she would be a Nazi […] She’s not a Nazi. She’s not hiding Nazi symbolism in her merch. This timeline is utterly insane," gaining over 8,000 likes in four days.

On October 13th, X^[5] user @jawestenberg shared a screenshot of @travelingnurselex's post, writing, "If you’re wondering how unhinged the Online Left discourse is today, they’re calling Taylor Swift a Neo Nazi because her new necklace has some lightning bolts," gaining over 2,000 likes in three days.

On October 14th, 2025, TikToker^[6] @be3f22ab posted a video defending claims that the necklace is a dog whistle, gaining over 2.4 million views in two days. In the video, she claims that many Black women have posted videos about the song "Opalite" having "racial undertones," saying that she's "in the business of listening to Black women" about microaggressions. She suggests Swift may not have intentionally put these undertones in the song, but regardless, she stopped streaming the album because of this.

Then she talks about the necklace, saying it convinced her that Swift did mean to put the racial undertones in "Opalite." She shares the opinion that the necklace has connections to the 1488 dog whistle due to the number of lightning bolts and links, and compares the star to the Iron Cross, which some consider another Nazi symbol.

On October 15th, TikToker^[7] @skelly.png posted a video criticizing people who spread the claims about the necklace being a dog whistle, writing, "The Taylor Swift necklace charms are literally lightning bolts, y'all are reaching so hard to cancel literally everyone for every move the make it'd be pretty outrageous if she actually put a dog whistle on a necklace. Believe it or not, not every celebrity is a notsee," gaining over 180,000 views in a day.

Search Interest

External References