Singer condemns the immigration arrest video before her song is muted, and the comment disappears

Ariana Grande has launched a fierce public challenge against the White House after her music appeared in a social media video promoting the Trump administration’s immigration policies.

The dispute began when the White House posted a TikTok video on Tuesday, 9 June. The clip used Grande’s 2024 song Bye while showing federal immigration officers detaining people, fastening handcuffs and moving them into vehicles and detention facilities.

Its caption declared that President Donald Trump had delivered what it called the most secure border in American history. Grande, however, made clear that she wanted no connection between her work and the images.

Responding beneath the post on Thursday, 11 June, the singer told the White House never to use her music in association with what she described as “barbaric, inhumane, heinous nonsense”.

The rebuke quickly intensified an already bitter argument over the administration’s use of popular songs in videos promoting immigration enforcement.

White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson rejected Grande’s criticism. She said the administration regarded people in the country illegally who had injured or killed American citizens as the real source of barbarity and inhumanity.

The original video showed officers approaching and restraining individuals before placing them in cars. Further footage depicted people being taken into detention centres. Grande’s upbeat track played across the sequence, creating a contrast that prompted her furious response.

Soon after she objected, the sound on the TikTok post was muted. Her comment also disappeared. Other users noticed both changes and began posting messages asking why the music had gone silent and why Grande’s response was no longer visible.

The confrontation arrived as Trump’s administration moved forward with a major expansion of immigration enforcement funding. The president signed legislation providing more than $70 billion to immigration agencies for the remaining two and a half years of his term.

The new funding and the White House’s social media campaign form part of an immigration agenda that the administration has repeatedly defended. Grande’s intervention, however, has placed renewed attention on the artists whose songs are used to accompany that message.

She is not the first major performer to object.

In December 2025, Sabrina Carpenter criticised a White House video that used part of her 2024 track Juno over footage of Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations. Carpenter called that clip “evil and disgusting” and demanded that her music never be used to support what she described as an inhumane agenda.

The clash also follows a series of disputes from Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign. ABBA asked its team to stop playing the group’s music at campaign rallies after songs and videos appeared at an event without the band’s approval.

Céline Dion and Beyoncé were also among the artists who objected to their work being connected to Trump’s re-election campaign. Their protests added to a long-running conflict between political teams seeking the instant impact of famous songs and musicians determined to control the causes associated with their work.

For Grande, the message was direct. The singer did not debate licensing arrangements or soften her language. She publicly rejected the use of Bye and condemned the immigration footage it accompanied.

The White House answered with equal force, defending its policies and the arrests shown in the video.

By the time the exchange spread across social media, the soundtrack had vanished. Yet the argument did not disappear with it. The muted clip, the missing comment and the administration’s combative reply have now turned a short TikTok reel into the latest high-profile battle over music, political messaging and immigration enforcement.