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For the second time this summer, Ariana Grande is blasting U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration for using her music in a social media post.
This time around, the Team Trump account added her song We Can’t Be Friends (Wait For Your Love) to a TikTok post that even tags the Grammy-winning performer.
Trump’s team uploaded a post Thursday showing clips of the president striding up to a podium to speak, with text overlaid on the video partly quoting from Grande’s hit 2024 track. The text reads: “Me and my truth we sit in silence… men can’t have babies and should never compete in women’s sports.”
The post’s caption added, “This shouldn’t be controversial!” along with several hashtags, including the singer’s name.
Grande appeared to clap back in the comment section. “Never use my music again. Also your truth is false,” read a comment from Grande’s verified account.
Sound has since been disengaged on the post and Grande’s comment apparently removed, though audience members have subsequently and repeatedly reposted screenshots of it.
ABBA has joined a growing list of artists demanding that the Trump campaign stop using their music. Although Trump asserts he has a licence to play their songs, some legal experts say artists have the right to challenge this use.
Grande’s curt response comes after the actor and pop star’s mid-June criticism of the administration for using her 2024 song Bye to accompany a video — also shared on TikTok — about immigration policy that depicts federal agents arresting and handcuffing people.
“Please do not ever use my music in relation to this barbaric, inhumane, heinous nonsense,” she posted in a comment on that video.
Objections from Taylor Swift to ABBA
Currently closing out her Eternal Sunshine Tour in London, Grande joins a wide-ranging and storied array of performers who’ve blasted the Trump team for using their music.
Over the years, Trump’s promotional team and campaigns have run afoul of scores of artists after playing their music at rallies or featuring tracks in social videos. Artists ranging from Neil Young, John Fogerty and Queen to The Rolling Stones, ABBA and Beyoncé to the estates of Leonard Cohen, Prince and Tom Petty have objected to the Trump team’s use of their music.
His team regularly turns to contemporary pop artists in particular: songs from Sabrina Carpenter and Katy Perry were recently included in social media posts. The team also doesn’t shy away from playing music from performers directly critical of Trump or his policies, including Drake, Bad Bunny and Taylor Swift.
Some artists have issued cease and desist orders or filed lawsuits in response. More recently, certain artists — like Swift and Bad Bunny — have moved quickly to have their music removed from or muted in Team Trump social videos through copyright infringement claims.
While political campaigns and others can buy licensing packages from music-rights organizations to legally play songs from vast databases, individual acts may opt out of inclusion for particular reasons. Artists who haven’t opted out can also still object.
