Sydney Sweeney survived a media firestorm last year just for starring in a jeans ad.
This past week legacy media found a new target in Morgan Wallen's duet partner.
Now Forbes says loving the wrong boyfriend makes her guilty of something too.
A Chart Topping Duet Partner Refused To Grovel On Command
Morgan Wallen just handed his duet partner her first number one hit on the Billboard Hot 100.
That duet partner is Tate McRae, a twenty two year old pop singer and Grammy nominee.
She is also rumored to be dating New Jersey Devils forward Jack Hughes.
That combination, a hit with Wallen and a rumored boyfriend with the wrong friends, was apparently enough evidence for Forbes writer Mary Whitfill Roeloffs to publish a piece titled "Tate McRae Distances Herself From MAGA Association – But Doesn't Outright Deny."
Read that headline again.
A pop singer's actual crime was declining to affirmatively deny a political label a reporter invented for her.
In a Variety interview days earlier, McRae was asked directly about the speculation and answered like an adult.
"I like to say my piece through organizations I support and the environment that I have on tour," she said.
She pointed to her own tour merchandise, which sends proceeds to the Trevor Project and the Global Fund for Women, and said "it's pretty obvious" where she stands.
https://x.com/PopCrave/status/2084296258018013218“>https://x.com/PopCrave/status/2084296258018013218
That was not good enough for Forbes.
So they brought her romantic relationships into it.
Loving A Hockey Player Is Now A Political Statement
The evidence against McRae is almost comically thin, and that is the entire point.
Morgan Wallen has never endorsed Trump or any political candidate.
His only offense, in the eyes of outlets like Forbes, is that conservative fans happen to like his music.
Jack Hughes's only offense was reportedly laughing along with Team USA teammates at a remark about the women's Olympic hockey team that was attributed to Trump.
None of that is a policy position, a donation, or a vote.
It is proximity, and in 2026 legacy media has decided proximity is enough to put a rising star on trial.
Breitbart's Warner Todd Huston called it correctly when he described this as a "media lynch mob" demanding McRae "prove she's not MAGA."
That framing is not an exaggeration when a reporter's actual published complaint is that a celebrity refused to say the word "no" on command.
Sydney Sweeney went through the same script last year, hounded over a jeans ad until it came out she was a registered Republican, and it sent American Eagle's sales and stock soaring instead of sinking her career.
McRae's version of that same loyalty test just arrived a year later, aimed at a different star with a different boyfriend.
McRae Did Not Fold, And That Is Exactly Why This Matters
Here is what should fire you up about this story.
McRae had every incentive to just say the magic words and make the outrage go away.
And to be clear she certainly doesn’t appear to be MAGA by any stretch.
But she refused to grovel and prostrate herself for the liberal media.
She gave a calm answer about her own charitable causes and let the record speak for itself, and legacy media still wrote it up as a scandal.
That tells you the demand was never really about MAGA.
It was about compliance.
Forbes and outlets like it are not asking whether Tate McRae supports a political movement.
They are testing whether young, famous, culturally powerful people will still perform public loyalty oaths on command, the same way Hollywood has for a decade.
Every time a star like McRae or Sweeney quietly declines to play along, it chips away at the idea that entertainers owe the press a confession.
That is a bigger and more encouraging story than one pop singer's dating life, and it is why this one is worth remembering the next time a "media lynch mob" tries the same play on somebody else.
Sources:
- Warner Todd Huston, "Media Lynch Mob Demands Pop Singer Tate McRae Prove She's Not MAGA," Breitbart, August 5, 2026.
- Mary Whitfill Roeloffs, "Tate McRae Distances Herself From MAGA Association – But Doesn't Outright Deny," Forbes, August 4, 2026.
- Variety Staff, "Tate McRae Interview," Variety, August 3, 2026.
- Brett T., "Forbes Celebrity You Haven't Heard Of Doesn't Outright Deny MAGA Association," Twitchy, August 4, 2026.
- The Washington Times Staff, "Tate McRae Faces Backlash for Refusing to Disavow MAGA Label," The Washington Times, August 5, 2026.
