Ariana Grande called out the White House for using her song “Bye” in a social media post promoting US immigration arrests, describing the video as “barbaric”.
The White House released the TikTok video on Tuesday. It featured US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arresting and handcuffing people.
The video used Grande’s song “Bye” as background audio and was captioned: “Bye-bye. President Trump has delivered the most secure border in history.”
On Thursday, Grande responded in the post’s comment 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 Friday morning her comment was no longer visible on the post. Representatives for Grande confirmed to Variety that she had indeed posted the comment, but “for some reason it’s not publicly visible”.
A source close to Grande confirmed to Reuters that her team was exploring how to remove the song from the video.
The audio track in the video appears to have been removed or muted since. At the time of writing, the video is still on Tiktok, but now displays the message: “This sound isn’t available.”
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement: “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.”
Enjoy unlimited access to 100 million ad-free songs and podcasts with Amazon Music
Sign up now for a 30-day free trial. Terms apply.
Try for free
ADVERTISEMENT. If you sign up to this service we will earn commission. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent.
Enjoy unlimited access to 100 million ad-free songs and podcasts with Amazon Music
Sign up now for a 30-day free trial. Terms apply.
Try for free
ADVERTISEMENT. If you sign up to this service we will earn commission. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent.
The response appears to reference Grande’s song “One Last Time” from her 2014 studio album My Everything.
The Independent has reached out to representatives for Grande and the White House for comment.
Since returning to office in January 2025, Trump has expanded ICE enforcement operations in major US cities, while pushing policies aimed at accelerating deportations and increasing border detentions.
The crackdown has triggered widespread protests, with anti-ICE demonstrations erupting in Los Angeles after raids in June 2025 and spreading to cities such as New York, Chicago, Boston, and San Francisco, where protesters have accused the administration of criminalising migrants and using militarised enforcement tactics.
Last year, Grande shared an Instagram post directed at Trump voters, asking whether their lives had improved after migrants had been “violently torn from their families and communities”.
At the time, White House deputy press secretary Kush Desai responded to Grande using her own song titles, including “Save Your Tears”, “Just Like Magic”, and “Get Well Soon” in a statement to The Independent.
Multiple musicians have publicly objected to their music being used in immigration-related social media posts. In November 2025, Olivia Rodrigo criticised the White House and the Department of Homeland Security after officials used her song “All-American Bitch” in a video urging undocumented migrants to “self-deport”, writing: “Don’t ever use my songs to promote your racist, hateful propaganda.”
In December 2025, Sabrina Carpenter condemned the White House’s use of her song “Juno” in an ICE arrest video as “evil and disgusting”, adding: “Do not ever involve me or my music to benefit your inhumane agenda.”
SZA also attacked the administration for using her song “Big Boys” in a separate deportation-related post, writing on X that “White House rage baiting artists for free promo is PEAK DARK” and describing the tactic as “inhumanity + shock and aw[e] tactics”.
Grande is currently on her 41-date ‘Eternal Sunshine’ tour. Her first concert tour since 2019 began in Oakland, California, on 6 June, and was scheduled to run through September, including multiple dates at London’s O2 Arena.
The Wicked star is also preparing to release her eighth studio album Petal on 31 July.
Last month, she released the album’s lead single, “Hate That I Made You Love Me”, which debuted at No 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the singer’s 10th chart-topping single in the US.
