For the second time this summer, Ariana Grande has criticized the Trump administration for featuring her music in a social media post. In this instance, the Team Trump account incorporated her song “We Can’t Be Friends (Wait For Your Love)” into a TikTok post that directly tagged the Grammy-winning artist.
The post shared by Trump’s team on Thursday displayed clips of the president walking up to a podium for a speech, with text on the video partially quoting Grande’s popular 2024 track. The text included lines such as “Me and my truth we sit in silence… men can’t have babies and should never compete in women’s sports.” The caption of the post stated, “This shouldn’t be controversial!” and included various hashtags, including the singer’s name.
Grande responded in the comment section, saying, “Never use my music again. Also your truth is false.” Subsequently, the sound on the post was disabled, and Grande’s comment was apparently removed, although viewers reposted screenshots of it.
This incident follows Grande’s criticism in mid-June when the administration used her song “Bye” in a TikTok video related to immigration policy, showing federal agents arresting individuals.
Grande now joins a long list of artists who have objected to Trump’s team using their music, including Neil Young, John Fogerty, Queen, the Rolling Stones, ABBA, Beyoncé, and the estates of Leonard Cohen, Prince, and Tom Petty. The Trump campaign has faced objections from various artists for playing their music at rallies or featuring songs in social videos.
Some artists have taken legal action, issuing cease and desist orders or filing lawsuits. Others, such as Taylor Swift and Bad Bunny, swiftly took steps to have their music removed from Team Trump social videos, possibly through copyright infringement claims.
While political campaigns can obtain licensing to play songs legally, individual artists have the choice to opt out for specific reasons. Even if artists have not opted out, they still retain the right to object to the use of their music.