Ariana Grande has expressed disapproval towards President Donald Trump’s administration for incorporating her music into a social media post for the second time this summer. This instance involved the Team Trump account including her track “We Can’t Be Friends (Wait For Your Love)” in a TikTok post that tagged the Grammy-winning artist.
The post showcased clips of the president approaching a podium to speak, featuring text from Grande’s 2024 hit track. Grande responded in the comments, urging Trump’s team to refrain from using her music and questioning the accuracy of their statements. Following her response, the sound was removed from the post, and Grande’s comment was apparently taken down, although audience members have shared screenshots of it.
This incident comes after Grande criticized the administration in mid-June for using her song “Bye” in a TikTok video addressing immigration policy. The artist joins a long list of performers who have objected to Trump’s team using their music, including Neil Young, John Fogerty, Queen, the Rolling Stones, ABBA, Beyoncé, and the estates of Leonard Cohen, Prince, and Tom Petty.
While political campaigns can obtain licensing packages to use music legally, individual artists have the option to opt out for various reasons. Some artists, such as Taylor Swift and Bad Bunny, have taken swift action to have their music removed from Team Trump’s social media posts through copyright infringement claims.