Ariana Grande Tells White House: ‘Don’t Ever Use My Music’ in ICE Video

When a pop anthem becomes political propaganda, even the most diplomatic artists draw a hard line.

Ariana Grande has had enough. On Thursday, June 11, 2026, the Grammy-winning artist fired back at the Trump White House after the administration used her 2024 hit “Bye” as the soundtrack to a TikTok video showing ICE agents handcuffing and detaining immigrants. Grande’s message was direct and unambiguous: “Please do not ever use my music in relation to this barbaric, inhumane, heinous nonsense. F— ICE.” The song has since been removed from the video, but the controversy surrounding the administration’s habit of hijacking pop music for immigration propaganda is far from over.

A Viral Post With a Chilling Message

The White House TikTok, posted Tuesday, June 9, featured a montage of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents making arrests and transporting detainees. The caption read: “Bye-bye President Trump has delivered the most secure border in history.” The choice of Grande’s song was no accident. The administration leaned into the song’s title, using it as a punchline to celebrate mass deportations.

The video was posted just one day before President Donald Trump signed the Secure America Act on June 10, a sweeping $70 billion immigration enforcement package that funds ICE and Customs and Border Protection through September 2029. The legislation has been hailed by the administration as a cornerstone of its border security agenda.

Grande’s comment appeared Thursday and, according to Billboard, was later no longer visible “for some reason.” Representatives for the singer confirmed the comment was authentic. A source close to Grande told People that her team was “actively looking into how to remove the video from social media as soon as possible.” The track has since been muted on the TikTok post.

The White House Punches Back

The administration was not about to let the rebuke go unanswered.

White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson issued a statement that appeared to sneak in a nod to Grande’s 2014 hit “One Last Time.”

“We’ll say this one last time: what’s actually barbaric, inhumane, and heinous are the criminal illegal aliens who have injured and murdered innocent American citizens.”

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt also weighed in, slamming what she called “elitist celebrities” for attacking ICE, arguing they were “unfairly demonizing law enforcement” while staying silent on violent crimes linked to illegal immigration.

The exchange followed a pattern the administration has made something of a sport. When Grande posted a pointed Instagram message last September asking Trump voters whether their lives had gotten better under his administration, White House deputy press secretary Kush Desai responded with a statement laced with her own song titles.

“Save your tears, Ariana, because President Trump’s actions ended Joe Biden’s inflation crisis and are bringing in trillions in new investments. He even signed an executive order just like magic that paved the way for the FTC to crack down on Ticketmaster for ripping off Ariana Grande’s concert-going fans. Get well soon, Ariana!”

It is trolling packaged as governance, and the administration has refined the strategy to a dark art.

Grande’s History of Speaking Out

This is not the first time Grande has taken a public stand against the Trump administration. She attended the Women’s March the weekend of Trump’s first inauguration in January 2017 and opposed his transgender bathroom ban on social media. She was a vocal supporter of Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential race and performed for then-President Barack Obama at the White House in 2014.

At the 2026 Golden Globes, Grande wore an “ICE Out” pin in a visible act of solidarity with immigrant communities. She has also questioned the administration’s enforcement priorities with posts like a protest sign photo that read: “Could someone explain which crimes get you deported and which ones get you elected president? It’s so confusing,” a clear reference to Trump’s 2024 conviction on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the Stormy Daniels case. Trump has consistently denied wrongdoing.

Artists Keep Drawing the Line

Grande is not alone. The list of musicians who have demanded the Trump administration stop using their music without consent continues to grow, and it reads like a Billboard Hall of Fame.

• Olivia Rodrigo demanded her song “All-American Bitch” be pulled from a November 2025 ICE video, writing: “Don’t ever use my songs to promote your racist, hateful propaganda.”

• Sabrina Carpenter called an ICE arrest video using her song “Juno” “evil and disgusting” in December 2025.

• SZA slammed the use of her “Big Boys” as “inhumanity + shock and awe tactics.”

• Kenny Loggins demanded the immediate removal of “Danger Zone” from an AI-generated Trump video last October.

• Other artists who have objected over the years include Adele, Beyonce, Celine Dion, Earth Wind and Fire, Foo Fighters, Guns N’ Roses, and Jack White, according to Yahoo Entertainment.

The legal picture is complicated. Most of these posts likely fall under a compulsory license or platform licensing agreements that technically allow the use of commercially available music in social media videos. But the repeated pattern of using the music of artists who have explicitly opposed the administration sends a message that is hard to miss: the White House is using these takedown demands as free publicity while delivering a taunt to the millions of fans who follow these artists.

What This Moment Really Means

There is something fundamentally unsettling about a government agency using a beloved pop song to celebrate the handcuffing and detention of human beings. The music serves as a vehicle to normalize what many Americans and human rights organizations have called a systematic assault on immigrant communities.

According to People, ICE has detained over 500 babies and toddlers during Trump’s second term. Reports from May 2026 indicate detainees are dying by suicide at what investigators are calling “alarming” rates. These are not abstract policy debates. They are human lives.

When Ariana Grande says “F— ICE,” she is not staging a PR stunt. She is speaking for the millions of fans who feel their voices, their music, and their values are being weaponized by an administration that answers criticism with mockery and word games.

As Grande prepares for the upcoming release of her new album Petal (arriving July 31), whose lead single “Hate That I Made You Love Me” debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 giving her a record-tying 10th chart-topper, and as she continues her 41-date Eternal Sunshine world tour, the battle over her music has become a window into something far larger than TikTok content strategy.

The Volume Gets Louder

Every time the White House borrows a pop anthem to sell its immigration policy, every time it swats back at a celebrity with a smirking statement built from song titles, it miscalculates. The artists speak. Their fans listen. And a new generation of voters takes note.

The song has been muted. The moment has not.

If you believe artists have the right to control how their music is used, and that government propaganda should not be wrapped in someone else’s art without their consent, speak up. Share this story. Support artists who stand for human dignity. And remember: music has always been a tool for resistance. The administration knows it. That is exactly why they keep trying to steal it.