The White House reportedly escalated its clash with pop star Sabrina Carpenter on Friday, releasing a new video on social media that mocked the singer after it was forced to quietly delete an earlier immigration clip that used her music without permission — a clip Carpenter blasted as “evil.”
In the latest video, posted Friday, the administration appeared to troll Carpenter by pulling a comedic segment from one of her Saturday Night Live appearances. In the skit, Carpenter jokes about having to “arrest someone for being too hot.” The White House edited the line by dubbing the word “illegal” over “hot” and then cut to a montage of ICE arrests — doubling down on the administration’s aggressive messaging on immigration enforcement.
The bizarre feud began Monday when the White House posted a 21-second clip to its official X account featuring an edited version of Carpenter’s song “Juno” over footage of immigration officers tackling and handcuffing migrants. Each repetition of the lyric “Have you ever tried this one?” triggered another arrest scene. The White House captioned the video: “Have you ever tried this one? Bye-bye.”
Carpenter responded sharply, slamming the administration within hours. “This video is evil and disgusting. Do not ever involve me or my music to benefit your inhumane agenda,” she wrote — a post that quickly amassed more than 1.7 million likes and ignited a wave of criticism over the White House’s use of copyrighted material and its provocative messaging.
Instead of backing down, the administration initially fired back. White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson quoted Carpenter’s own album title while defending the 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,” she told CNN. “Anyone who would defend these sick monsters must be stupid, or is it slow?”
But by Friday afternoon, the original video had quietly disappeared from X. While versions of the clip remained on TikTok, the audio was removed — strongly suggesting the administration may have been hit with a copyright complaint. Neither the White House nor Carpenter publicly commented on whether legal action was threatened.
The standoff reflects a growing trend of artists objecting to their work being used in political messaging. Carpenter joins Olivia Rodrigo, Jess Glynne, MGMT and comedian Theo Von, all of whom have protested the unauthorized use of their content in migrant-related government videos.
The episode raises new questions about the administration’s communications strategy, given the decision to publicly taunt a popular entertainer with a massive online following — particularly after already being forced to retract the initial clip.
It also highlights the White House’s determination to promote its immigration enforcement actions, even as hyper liberal critics accuse the administration of using heavy-handed media tactics and inflammatory imagery.
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