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 video that tagged the Grammy-winning singer. The video showed President Trump approaching a podium to speak, with text quoting lyrics from Grande’s 2024 hit track. Grande responded in the comments, demanding that her music not be used and calling out the content as false. The sound on the post was later removed, and Grande’s comment was apparently taken down, although screenshots of it circulated online.
This incident follows Grande’s previous objection in mid-June when her song “Bye” was used in a TikTok video about immigration policy. Numerous artists, including Taylor Swift and ABBA, have also voiced objections to the Trump team using their music. Over the years, Trump’s campaign has faced backlash from artists like Neil Young, John Fogerty, Queen, the Rolling Stones, ABBA, Beyoncé, and others for playing their music without permission. Some artists have taken legal action or issued cease and desist orders to prevent their music from being used in Trump’s social videos.
While political campaigns can obtain licenses to use music from large databases, individual artists have the right to opt out of having their music included for various reasons. Despite licensing agreements, artists can still object to the use of their music in specific contexts.