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, uploaded by Trump’s team, displayed footage of the president approaching a podium to speak, with text quoting part of Grande’s 2024 track. Grande responded in the comments section, demanding that her music not be used again and calling out the inaccuracies in the post’s content.
This incident follows Grande’s previous objection in mid-June when her song “Bye” was used in a TikTok video related to immigration policy. The pop star has joined a long list of artists, including Taylor Swift and ABBA, who have criticized the Trump team for utilizing their music without permission. Various artists, such as Neil Young, John Fogerty, Queen, the Rolling Stones, ABBA, Beyoncé, and the estates of Leonard Cohen, Prince, and Tom Petty, have all expressed objections to Trump’s use of their music.
While some artists have taken legal action, others like Swift and Bad Bunny have swiftly taken steps to have their music removed from Team Trump’s social videos. Artists have the option to exclude their music from licensing packages purchased by political campaigns, allowing them to object to unauthorized use.