Sabrina Carpenter slammed the White House Tuesday for using her hit song about “freaky positions” in a racist video about brutal immigration arrests.
The White House posted a video on X Monday using the Gen Z pop star’s song “Juno” over footage of people protesting Trump’s immigration operations. The video then cuts to clips of other people being brutally run down and handcuffed by federal authorities. It’s not clear that any of the people in the video were actually undocumented immigrants—they just weren’t white.
“Have you ever tried this one?” the post read, a lyric from Carpenter’s song. “Bye-bye.”
Carpenter replied the next day: “This video is evil and disgusting. Do not ever involve me or my music to benefit your inhumane agenda.”
But White House didn’t seem to get the message to keep away from Carpenter’s music. White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson responded with a statement that once again referenced the singer’s lyrics: “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?”
If this is the Trump administration’s best attempt to reach out to a younger generation, it doesn’t seem to be going too well.
Earlier this month, Carpenter’s fellow pop star and former Disney Channel actress Olivia Rodrigo hit back at the Department of Homeland Security after it posted an Instagram reel promoting self-deportation, using one of her songs. In a comment, Rodrigo said, “Don’t ever use my songs to promote your racist, hateful propaganda.”
Immigration and Customs Enforcement launched an ad campaign in August to recruit “Gen-Z and early-career professionals” to fill thousands of open roles as so-called “Homeland Defenders.” The Trump administration has desperately worked to boost the number of immigration officers, causing a “shit show” at ICE.
This story has been updated.