Katy Perry criticizes the President Donald Trumpadministration after the official White House TikTok account featured his hit song “Firework” in a video highlighting the ongoing US military strikes in Iran.
“I'm very surprised and outraged to see 'Firework' being used on the @WhiteHouse TikTok account as a backing track for a military strike video,” the singer, 41, wrote via X on Saturday, July 25.
He continued, “I wrote this song to be a song of hope, healing, and inner strength for people who are going through difficult personal times. To see a message of self-confidence and upliftment armed with the song's destruction and violence is a complete violation of everything my song stands for. My music is about bringing people together, not celebrating war.”
On Thursday, July 24, the White House shared anonymous photos of US aircraft targeting what appears to be Iranian military infrastructure. The video, which showed darts hitting in black and white, is set to Perry's song, focusing on his lyrics “boom boom” and the lyrics “brighter than the moon”. (Perry sold the rights to his music in 2023 for $225 million.)
“Iran has been warned,” the White House captioned the video. When asked to comment on Perry's claim that he was not contacted about the use of his song in the video, a White House spokesperson spoke. Us in a video shared by X featuring Perry cosplaying as an American soldier in a previous music video.
@whitehouse Iran has been warned. 🎆
♬ original sound – The White House
Trump, 80, and his administration are facing intense scrutiny for the unpopular decision to go to war with Iran – according to July. Washington Post-ISOS poll, 68 percent of Americans say the Iran war is not worth fighting. Despite the great power of the US military, Iran has succeeded in closing the Strait of Hormuz, an important passage for various goods, which has caused the price of gas and the cost of other necessary materials.
To date, Trump has claimed at least 32 times that the war was ending, about to end or over, yet the conflict continues to be elusive as his Defense Department requests an additional $67 billion in funding.
Perry is just the latest in a growing line of artists and musicians to criticize Trump and his White House for using their art without their express permission.
“Please don't use my music in relation to this barbaric, inhumane, disgusting thing. Fck [f***] snow,” Ariana Grande he wrote in direct response to a June, pro-immigration enforcement White House shared video of his son saying “Bye.” After the singer's spokesperson, 33, confirmed Us it was actually Grande who wrote the comments, the White House took issue with the controversial video.
A musician Kesha He also criticized Trump and the White House for using his song “Blow” in another pro-war TikTok video ahead of the conflict in Iran.
“It has come to my mind that the White House has used one of my sons on TikTok to incite violence and threaten war,” he wrote in March. “Trying to make war easier is disgusting and barbaric. I absolutely do NOT allow my music to be used to incite violence of any kind.”
White House communications director, Steven CheungKesha responded at the time, saying that artists just “fall into this.”
“This gives us more attention and more views on our videos because people want to see what they're talking about,” Cheung said, before using Trump's signature social media sign. “Thank you for your attention to this matter.”
