White House deputy press secretary Abigail Jackson then responded to Carpenter’s criticism in a statement laced with references to Carpenter’s 2024 album, Short n’ Sweet, and lyrics from her August album’s lead single, Manchild.
“Here’s a Short n’ Sweet message for Sabrina Carpenter: we won’t apologise for deporting dangerous criminal illegal murderers, rapists and paedophiles from our country,” Jackson said. “Anyone who would defend these sick monsters must be stupid, or is it slow?”
Trump’s team has featured songs in social media videos without the artists’ approval going right back to 2015, when R.E.M. slammed the then-presidential candidate’s use of It’s the End of the World as We Know It. Beyonce, Rihanna, Phil Collins, Steve Tyler, Neil Young, the Foo Fighters and The Rolling Stones have all at various times objected to their music being used.
Most recently, in November, Olivia Rodrigo called out the United States’ Department of Homeland Security for using her song, All-American Bitch, in a video asking undocumented immigrants who live in the United States to self-deport.
“Don’t ever use my songs to promote your racist, hateful propaganda,” Rodrigo commented on the offending Instagram post.
In October, 1980s star Kenny Loggins slammed Trump’s use of his song Danger Zone, recorded for Top Gun, as a soundtrack for an AI-generated video that showed Trump flying over a “No Kings” protest and dropping faeces on demonstrators from a fighter jet emblazoned with the label “King Trump”.
“This is an unauthorised use of my performance of Danger Zone,” Loggins wrote at the time. “Nobody asked me for my permission, which I would have denied, and I request that my recording on this video is removed immediately.”
The video, with Loggins’ song, remains up on Trump’s Truth Social page.
