Viral story about Taylor Swift's smashed $4,000 guitar debunked

Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP, File

A viral story about a man who spent $4,000 on a guitar signed by a superstar Taylor Swift and then immediately smashing it with a hammer turned out to be not quite what it seemed.

The guitar was an item sold at an auction by the Ellis County WildGame Dinner organization in Waxahachie, Texas, on Saturday. The proceeds went to agricultural training for local youth. During the event, an unnamed man won the guitar and then went on stage to destroy it. The moment was captured on video and posted to Twitter/X on Sunday and soon went viral:

The motivation for the man's wanton destruction was never explained, but one thing that was explained after the fact was that the guitar wasn't actually signed by Taylor Swift. It wasn't played by Taylor Swift, nor was it official Taylor Swift merch. This, according to Swift's merch rep, according to Variety:

But contrary to media reports, the guitar the man destroyed was not signed by Swift — nor was it a certified official guitar the singer used, a source close to her merch company confirmed to Variety. The organization conducting the auction, the Ellis County WildGame Dinner, presented the guitar with a signed CD insert, but the guitar itself was unsigned.

No word on the current condition of the CD insert or the CD, which apparently wasn't offered as a prize.

Although neither the man in the video nor the WildGame dinner in Ellis County provided a reason for the destruction, there are some people in the United States of America who are not fans of Taylor Swift. One of these people is the 45th President of the United States and the current Republican presidential nominee Donald Trumpwho recently declared, “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!”

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