The Trump administration has drawn fire recently for its unauthorized use of music by A-listers including Sabrina Carpenter, Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo and Kenny Loggins and others in videos promoting its agenda. And while the use of recognizable hits by chart-toppers appears to be a feature, not a bug, of the White House’s attempt to keep attention focused on the president’s top priorities, on Wednesday (Dec. 3) the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS) posted a video promoting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) recruitment set to the tune of a song most music lovers are probably unfamiliar with.
The results, however, were the same: anger from the artist who said he was furious about what he deemed the wholly unauthorized, inappropriate use of his music in a government propaganda video.
“I’m disgusted to see our music was used without our knowledge or consent to promote I.C.E.,” wrote indie producer/rapper Joey Valence of the Philadelphia hip-hop duo Joey Valence and Brae on X. “To be clear this video does NOT represent my OR JVB’s thoughts or beliefs in any form and we are actively working to have it taken down.”
The DHS promo video in question that dropped on Wednesday evening is cued to the group’s 2023 single “Hooligang,” and it opens with the track’s spoken word intro, “Yo, you wanna see something cool?… Well, I’m a do it anyway,” over video of the sign outside the Buffalo, N.Y. ICE detention facility. It then cuts to a series of shots of snow-covered ICE military vehicles and groups of masked, long-gun-toting ICE agents in full combat gear aiming their rifles and tooling around in aimless circles on the running boards of the trucks in the recruitment clip that ends with the message “Join ICE.GOV.”
The video’s caption reads: “This winter, the forecast calls for ICE.” The clip is the latest example of the Trump White House using popular music to advance its domestic agenda in meme-seeking clips that mix lighthearted captions with visuals intended to feel ominous or edgy.
At press time a spokesperson for ICE/DHS had not returned Billboard‘s request for comment.
Earlier this week, Carpenter lambasted the White House for posting a compilation of ICE officers chasing, tackling and handcuffing people on the streets set to her Short n’ Sweet song “Juno.”
“This video is evil and disgusting,” Carpenter wrote on X. “Do not ever involve me or my music to benefit your inhumane agenda.” In keeping with its edgelord-style responses to pushback from the peeved artists, Trump spokesperson Abigail Jackson told Newsweek, “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?”
Carpenter joins a long list of musicians who have expressed their anger and disgust with the administration for hijacking their songs without authorization to promote its agenda. Last month, Rodrigo condemned the White House for pairing a video encouraging self-deportations with her song “All-American Bitch.”
“don’t ever use my songs to promote your racist, hateful propaganda,” she wrote. In addition, Loggins lashed out at POTUS for using his Top Gun hit “Danger Zone” in an AI-generated video in which Trump appeared to spray fecal matter on “No Kings” protestors. And Swifties called out the White House for a TikTok that used the lyrics to Swift’s Billboard Hot 100 chart-topper “The Fate of Ophelia” in a bizarre promotional video mixing footage of military hardware with images of twice-impeached Trump’s mugshot and pictures of his cabinet.
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