Ben Stiller Slams White House for Using “Tropic Thunder ”Clip and Demands They Remove It: ‘War Is Not a Movie’

Ben Stiller in ‘Tropic Thunder’ (2008).
Credit: Merie Weismiller Wallace/Paramount Pictures

NEED TO KNOW

• Ben Stiller is speaking out after an official White House social media account used a clip from Tropic Thunder

• Trump’s White House posted a video featuring a compilation of several movies and TV shows including Top Gun, Superman, Transformers, Tropic Thunder and more cut with clips of U.S. military operations

• “We never gave you permission and have no interest in being a part of your propaganda machine. War is not a movie,” Stiller wrote

Ben Stiller is speaking out after an official White House social media account used a clip from Tropic Thunder.

Stiller, 60, shared a statement to X on Friday, March 6, after Trump’s White House posted a video featuring a compilation of several movies and TV shows including Top Gun, Superman, Transformers, Breaking Bad, Iron Man and more — including Stiller’s 2008 comedy Tropic Thunder — cut with clips seemingly of U.S. military operations.

“Justice the American way,” the White House captioned their post.

Stiller then responded, “Hey White House, please remove the Tropic Thunder clip.”

“We never gave you permission and have no interest in being a part of your propaganda machine. War is not a movie,” he added.

Stiller is one of many celebrities who have spoken out after the White House used their content on its social media channels, including Céline Dion, Bruce Springsteen, Linkin Park, Neil Young, Olivia Rodrigo and Radiohead.

Just this week, Kesha spoke out after the White House using her song “Blow” in Feb. 10 a video that featured a fighter jet firing a missile at a naval ship and an explosion.

“It’s come to my attention that The White House has used one of my songs on TikTok to incite violence and threaten war,” Kesha, 39, wrote in an Instagram Stories post on March 2. “Trying to make light of war is disgusting and inhumane.”

The “Die Young” singer added that she “absolutely” does not “approve of my music being used to promote violence of any kind.”

The cast of ‘Tropic Thunder’ (2008).
Credit: Merie Weismiller Wallace/Paramount Pictures

In response to Kesha’s statement, White House Director of Communications Steven Cheung reposted her words on X, adding, “All these ‘singers’ keep falling for this. This just gives us more attention and more view counts to our videos because people want to see what they’re bitching about. Thank you for your attention to this matter.”

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Similarly, the White House deleted a video posted on X (though preserved the video on TikTok) promoting ICE arrests after Sabrina Carpenter criticized the use of her song as the soundtrack for the clip.

The Trump Administration shared a video highlighting recent ICE arrests in December while the pop star’s hit song “Juno” played. The video showed various clips of immigration and customs enforcement officers detaining people as the lyrics “Have you ever tried this one?” repeated over and over again. The White House captioned the video, “Have you ever tried this one? Bye-bye.”

President Donald J. Trump on March 2.
Credit: The White House via X Account/Anadolu via Gett

The White House deleted the video from its X account on Dec. 5, following Carpenter’s viral response. In her comment under the since-deleted post that garnered over a million likes, the “Manchild” singer called the video “evil and disgusting.”

“Do not ever involve me or my music to benefit your inhumane agenda,” Carpenter wrote in her X post on Dec 2.

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