The White House had a sharp response Tuesday after pop star Sabrina Carpenter aimed a scathing at the Trump administration for using her song in an ICE arrest video.
"Here’s a Short n’ Sweet message for Sabrina Carpenter: We won’t apologize for deporting dangerous criminal illegal murderers, rapists, and pedophiles from our country. Anyone who would defend these sick monsters must be stupid, or is it slow?” White House Spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement, making a reference to the artist's "Short n' Sweet" album and popular hit "Manchild," Politico reported.
The White House shared a video of aggressive ICE arrests on X paired to her song and viral lyrics from the song "Juno," with the text: "Have you ever tried this one? Bye-bye."
Carpenter slammed the administration in her response on X, saying "this video is evil and disgusting. Do not ever involve me or my music to benefit your inhumane agenda."
The Trump administration has used multiple artists' and creators' work without their permission, including Kenny Loggins, The White Stripes and Taylor Swift. In September, DHS shared the meme-style video likening ICE raids and capturing undocumented immigrants to Pokémon and using arrested immigrants as "cards" mocking the suspects in the same style as the popular Japanese animé, which is partly owned by Nintendo.
White House officials told Zeteo that the Trump administration uses popular music in its videos, including "vocally anti-Trump performing artists, in order to trigger a negative response from a famous liberal and provide further amplification of their pervasive culture war."
“We do it on purpose,” one White House official told the outlet.