Pop star Ariana Grande on Monday publicly asked the White House to stop using her 2024 hit “Bye” in a social media video promoting President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement policies, describing the footage as “barbaric, inhumane, heinous nonsense.”
The exchange, which unfolded on TikTok, marks the latest instance of a prominent artist objecting to the Trump administration’s use of their music in political messaging — a pattern that has grown in recent months as the president has escalated his immigration crackdown.
The White House video, posted Monday, shows border agents placing people in handcuffs, ushering them into cars, and escorting them into detention centers. The clip is set to Grande’s song and carries the caption: “Bye-bye… President Trump has delivered the most secure border in history.”
Grande commented directly on the post: “Please do not use my music in relation to this barbaric, inhumane, heinous nonsense.”
After Grande replied, the video’s audio was muted and her comment was removed, multiple users noted on the platform. The White House did not explain the changes.
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told US media: “What’s actually barbaric, inhumane, and heinous are the criminal illegal aliens who have injured and murdered innocent American citizens.”
The video comes after Trump signed a bill into law approving more than $70 billion (approximately £52 billion) in funding for immigration agencies for the remaining two-and-a-half years of his presidential term.
Grande, currently starring in the film “Wicked,” joins a growing list of artists who have asked the administration not to use their music. Last year, singer Sabrina Carpenter wrote “do not ever involve me or my music to benefit your inhumane agenda” after a White House clip used her 2024 song “Juno” in a compilation of ICE operations. ABBA, Céline Dion, and Beyoncé were among those who insisted Trump’s campaign not use their music during his 2024 re-election bid, particularly at campaign rallies.
MSI has previously reported on the widening cultural opposition to Trump’s immigration policies, including the administration’s use of pop-culture imagery in promotional material.