Ariana Grande has once again criticized the Trump administration for utilizing her music in a social media post. This time, the Team Trump account featured her song “We Can’t Be Friends (Wait For Your Love)” in a TikTok post that tagged the Grammy-winning artist. The post included clips of President Trump approaching a podium to speak, with text quoting from Grande’s 2024 hit track. Grande responded in the comments, demanding that her music not be used and calling out the inaccuracies in the post. The sound has been removed from the post, and Grande’s comment appears to have been deleted, although screenshots of it have been reposted by the audience.
This incident follows Grande’s previous criticism in mid-June when her song “Bye” was used in a TikTok video about immigration policy. She had expressed her disapproval of associating her music with what she described as “barbaric, inhumane, heinous nonsense.”
The use of artists’ music by the Trump campaign has faced objections from various performers, including Taylor Swift and ABBA. Numerous artists, such as Neil Young, John Fogerty, Queen, the Rolling Stones, ABBA, Beyoncé, and the estates of Leonard Cohen, Prince, and Tom Petty, have objected to the unauthorized use of their music by Trump. Some artists have taken legal action, while others have swiftly acted to have their music removed from Team Trump’s social videos, often citing copyright infringement.
While political campaigns can legally use songs by purchasing licensing packages from music-rights organizations, individual artists have the option to exclude their music for various reasons. Artists who have not opted out can still voice objections to the use of their music.