On Tuesday, Sabrina Carpenter won widespread praise for her A+ response to the Trump administration using her song “Juno” over a video of people being apprehended by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement).
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The White House’s official social media accounts shared the video earlier this week, and Sabrina was horrified — to say the least. Making her feelings incredibly clear, the singer replied to the account’s X page directly and wrote: “this video is evil and disgusting. Do not ever involve me or my music to benefit your inhumane agenda.”
X @SabrinaAnnLynn / Via Twitter: @SabrinaAnnLynn
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And it’s worth mentioning that Sabrina is far from the first musician to publicly respond in this way. When Brendon Urie from Panic! At The Disco discovered that the Trump administration was playing his band’s song “High Hopes” in their 2020 Presidential campaign, he wrote: “Fuck you. You’re not invited. Stop playing my song.”
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In 2018, Rihanna also reacted when a tweet revealed that her song “Don’t Stop The Music” was “blaring” at a Trump rally, replying: “Not for much longer…me nor my people would ever be at or around one of those tragic rallies.”
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Olivia Rodrigo actively removed her song “Deja Vu” from one of Trump’s 2024 election victory videos last year, adding in a comment: “Ew don’t use my sound ever again ty.” And just last month, Olivia reiterated her stance when the White House featured her song “All-American Bitch” on another ICE endorsement post, with Olivia commenting at the time: “don’t ever use my songs to promote your racist, hateful propaganda.”
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In fact, so many big name artists have called out the Trump administration for using their music that there is an entire Wikipedia page dedicated to it, featuring the likes of Adele, the Foo Fighters, and Beyoncé. But one name that is decidedly not on this list is Taylor Swift — and it has not gone unnoticed, with Sabrina’s recent takedown reigniting the conversation.
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In case you missed it, on Nov. 3, the official White House account posted a TikTok featuring Taylor’s song “The Fate Of Ophelia.” The bizarre video was paired with images of Trump, and used the song’s lyrics to push a pro-administration message. (You can watch it here — be warned that it is objectively unhinged!)
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Taylor has not publicly commented on the video, which remains live on the account, and people were quick to call it out in light of Sabrina’s post. One person quote-tweeted Pop Base’s tweet about Sabrina and simply wrote: “see @taylorswift13 it’s not hard to tell the shitty ass admin to not use ur music… unless ur okay with it?”
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Another referenced a lyric from Taylor’s song “Clara Bow” as they wrote: “They really got edge she never did eh.”
While somebody else pointedly tweeted: “not to be that person but its kinda telling how #she isn’t saying shit Lol.”
And one more added: “other artists speaking out when the trump administration uses their music makes taylor swift’s silence extra loud.”
It’s worth noting that many of Taylor’s dedicated fans are among the people to be calling out her silence, but some Swifties are still jumping to defend her — and their defense strategy has sparked widespread ridicule across social media. One of the viral posts that sums up the argument in Taylor’s favor says of Sabrina’s tweet: “And what did it accomplish besides giving this evil administration more attention? Quickly.” Needless to say, many have been left tickled by the concept of somebody as prominent and powerful as the president of the United States and his administration not already receiving more than enough attention.
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Quote-tweeting the post, one popular response jokes: “the niche indie president of the united states.”
While another person pointed out: “You think denouncing the current administration of the U.S is giving it attention…”
Somebody else summed up the discourse by writing: “swifties will literally stand in the wrong side of history if it means to not say, or even imply, the tiniest bit of criticism about their fave.”
For what it’s worth, during Taylor’s brief political era in 2020, she did publicly denounce Donald Trump on social media, and she even confirmed that she is a democrat in her Miss. Americana Netflix documentary, which was released that same year. Since then, Taylor has remained largely silent on political issues, although she did endorse Kamala Harris in the most recent presidential election.
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As always, let me know your thoughts in the comments!
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