Ariana Grande has once again criticized the Trump administration for using 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 displayed President Trump walking up to a podium with text quoting from Grande’s 2024 track, stating, “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 added, “This shouldn’t be controversial,” along with various hashtags, including Grande’s name.
In response, Ariana Grande commented, “Never use my music again. Also, your truth is false,” before the sound was disabled on the post and her comment was apparently removed, although screenshots of it have been reposted by the audience.
Grande’s reaction follows her criticism of the administration in mid-June for using her song “Bye” in a TikTok video about immigration policy. Numerous artists, including Neil Young, John Fogerty, Queen, the Rolling Stones, ABBA, Beyoncé, and estates of Leonard Cohen, Prince, and Tom Petty, have objected to Trump’s team using their music at rallies or in social media videos over the years.
Despite artists being able to opt-out of licensing packages for their music to be used by political campaigns, some like Taylor Swift and Bad Bunny have taken swift action to have their music removed from Team Trump social videos, often through copyright infringement claims.