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White House hits back at Ariana Grande over demand to stop using her music in ‘barbaric’ ICE deportation video
Asiya A.
The White House has fired back after Ariana Grande condemned them for using one of her songs in a video promoting immigration arrests.
The controversy began after the Trump administration shared a TikTok on Tuesday (June 9) featuring footage of ICE agents carrying out arrests.
The 32-year-old's song 'Bye' was used as the soundtrack, while the video was captioned: "Bye-bye. President Trump has delivered the most secure border in history."
The Grammy-winning singer did not hold back when she responded in the comments section.
"Please do not ever use my music in relation to this barbaric, inhumane, heinous nonsense. F*** ICE," she wrote, according to Variety.
As of this writing, the comment was no longer visible on the post. However, representatives for Grande confirmed to the outlet that she had made the comment, adding that "for some reason it's not publicly visible".
The sound appears to have been removed from the video.
White House Response and Grande's previous criticism of Trump policies
The administration quickly pushed back against Grande's comment in a statement shared with Variety.
"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 spokesperson Abigail Jackson said.
The statement appeared to contain a pointed reference to Grande's 2014 hit 'One Last Time' from her album, My Everything.
This is not the first time the 'The Way' songstress has publicly criticized immigration policies associated with President Donald Trump.
Last September, Grande shared an Instagram post claiming that "immigrants have been violently torn from their families and communities have been destroyed," per Yahoo.
At the time, White House deputy press secretary Kush Desai responded by referencing several of Grande's song titles in a statement, including 'Save Your Tears', 'Just Like Magic', and 'Get Well Soon'.
Other Artists Have Also Objected
Grande is not the only musician to condemn the administration for using popular songs in immigration-related content.
In November 2025, Olivia Rodrigo slammed the White House and the Department of Homeland Security after her song 'All-American B***h' was used in a video encouraging undocumented migrants to "self-deport".
"Don't ever use my songs to promote your racist, hateful propaganda," she wrote.
The following month, Sabrina Carpenter criticized officials for using her song 'Juno' in an ICE arrest video.
In a post on X, she penned: "This video is evil and disgusting. Do not ever involve me or my music to benefit your inhumane agenda."
SZA also took aim at the administration after her song 'Big Boys' appeared in another deportation-related social media post.
Writing on X, she claimed: "White House rage baiting artists for free promo is PEAK DARK ..inhumanity +shock and aw tactics ..Evil n Boring."