Musicians On March 17, 2025, the
White House and
U.S. Border Patrol Instagram accounts posted a video supporting the Trump administration's deportation of illegal immigrants. The video used the
Semisonic song "
Closing Time" as background music without authorization and included the caption "You don't have to go home but you can't stay here." Semisonic objected to this use, stating: "We did not authorize or condone the White House's use of our song in any way. And no, they didn't ask. The song is about joy and possibilities and hope, and they have missed the point entirely." A video posted to the DHS Instagram page on June 13 featured the song "
I Won't Back Down" by late American rock musician
Tom Petty. Petty's estate objected in an emailed statement: "The use of the song in connection with the Dept of Homeland security is completely unauthorized.... Cease and desist legal orders will be issued to stop this abuse of Tom's song." By June 14, the audio on the Instagram video had been disabled. Another video, uploaded to the DHS and
Customs and Border Protection Instagram accounts in July, combined footage of DHS secretary
Kristi Noem accompanying CBP agents with
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club's
cover version of "
God's Gonna Cut You Down", a traditional American folk song. On July 10, the band issued public statements on Instagram and Twitter demanding that DHS
cease and desist using their cover recording, writing: "It's obvious that you don't respect Copyright Law and Artist Rights any more than you respect Habeas Corpus and Due Process rights," and adding "go
f... yourselves." On July 29, the White House posted a video on its official
Twitter account superimposing audio from a
Jet2holidays commercial over footage of alleged undocumented immigrants in handcuffs being escorted onto an airplane by
ICE officers. The advertisement, which uses the song "
Hold My Hand" by English singer-songwriter
Jess Glynne and voiceover by actress
Zoë Lister, had become parodied in an
Internet meme. Jet2, Glynne, and Lister have all issued statements condemning the White House's use of the advertisement audio. On July 30, the
Department of Homeland Security's Twitter account posted a video using
Sam Hunt's rendition of the song "
This Land Is Your Land" by Woody Guthrie, with the caption "The Promise of America is worth Protecting. The Future of our Homeland is worth Defending." In a statement to
ABC News, Guthrie's estate criticized DHS's use of the song, saying that "it looks like we'll all have to sing 'This Land Is Your Land' right back at 'em, so they can re-learn it and get it right." However, Guthrie's heirs have sought to keep it under copyright control in order to prevent actors like Trump and the Ku Klux Klan from using it in ways that would have conflicted with Guthrie's wishes. "; the audio in this version has been muted. On October 18,
Donald Trump shared an AI-generated video depicting himself in a fighter jet marked "King Trump", dropping brown liquid resembling feces on crowds of protesters in the
No Kings demonstrations, on his
Truth Social account. The video was set to the recording of "
Danger Zone" by Kenny Loggins, apparently referencing the film
Top Gun; it had been created by another user and then reposted by Trump. Loggins asked Trump to remove his song from the video and told a reporter, "I can't imagine why anybody would want their music used or associated with something created with the sole purpose of dividing us." By November 8, Instagram had muted the audio. In response, a DHS spokesperson issued the statement: "America is grateful all the time for our federal law enforcement officers who keep us safe. We suggest Ms. Rodrigo thank them for their service, not belittle their sacrifice." Carpenter responded, "This video is evil and disgusting. Do not ever involve me or my music to benefit your inhumane agenda." The White House responded on December 5 by posting an edited version of a
Saturday Night Live promotion featuring Carpenter and cast member
Marcello Hernández. The video was overdubbed so that Carpenter appears to say, "I think I might need to arrest someone for being too
illegal," instead of "...being too hot"—referring to Hernández, who is Latino—and spliced together with footage of ICE arrests. On December 8, the White House uploaded a holiday-themed, pro-ICE video that featured a remixed version of the song "
Big Boys" by
SZA, which originated from a
December 2022 SNL sketch under the same name. While the song alludes to the concept of
cuffing season, the video relates the message to arresting immigrants in
handcuffs. SZA accused the video of being "
rage bait" to receive free promotion for an agenda that was "inhuman" and "evil". SZA's former manager,
Terrence "Punch" Henderson, similarly concluded that "trying to provoke artist to respond in order to help spread propaganda and political agendas is nasty business. Knock it off." In February 2026, English rock band
Radiohead released a statement that condemned the use of their song "
Let Down" in a video posted by
ICE, stating, "We demand that the amateurs in control of the ICE social media account take it down. It ain't funny, this song means a lot to us and other people, and you don't get to appropriate it without a fight. Also, go fuck yourselves… Radiohead." On April 16, 2026, German synth-pop band
Alphaville issued a statement on their Instagram profile condemning Donald Trump's use of their song "
Forever Young" in an AI-generated video on his Truth Social profile. The statement, posted in English and German and signed by bandleader
Marian Gold, said that Alphaville "largely abhor" Trump's political views and would "ensure that this post is removed from the internet immediately."
Television and video game franchises On September 22, 2025, the DHS released a video montage that combined clips from the
Pokémon animated series showing protagonist Ash Ketchum throwing Poké Balls with footage of alleged illegal immigrants being arrested by ICE officers. The video uses the "
Pokémon Theme" in the background and ends with a series of mock
Pokémon cards featuring images of some of the arrested individuals. It was also posted by the official White House
TikTok account. Two days later,
The Pokémon Company International released a statement in response to the videos, noting that "permission was not granted for the use of our intellectual property." On October 26, the White House
quote tweeted a post by
GameStop, adding an AI-generated image of Donald Trump dressed as
Master Chief from the
Halo video game franchise with the caption "Power to the Players". The next day, the DHS posted another
Halo-themed image superimposed by the text "Destroy the Flood" (referencing the fictional
parasitic alien species in the
Halo games) and the domain name .
Microsoft, the owner of the
Halo franchise, has not commented publicly on the government's social media posts. On March 5, 2026, the White House posted an image based on the cover art of the video game
Pokémon Pokopia, with the logo edited to say "
Make America Great Again", on its Twitter account. The image was based on a meme generator released by PixelFrame that enables users to create spoofs of the
Pokopia logo in the logo's font. The Pokémon Company responded to this image, with a spokesperson saying "We were not involved in its creation or distribution, and no permission was granted for the use of our intellectual property. Our mission is to bring the world together, and that mission is not affiliated with any political viewpoint or agenda." On March 12, 2026, the White House posted a video titled "Undefeated", featuring footage of U.S. drone strikes in Iran during the
2026 Iran war spliced between a gameplay video of
Wii Sports. The footage of strikes appears when the
player character is about to score a hit, with various graphics from
Wii Sports being
superimposed onto the footage, such as the "
hole in one" banner, while featuring music and sound effects from the game. The upbeat nature of the game being mixed with real military footage was condemned by internet users, with one user stating "War is not a videogame." On March 27, 2026, the official White House X account posted an AI-generated short video depicting Trump declaring "Make Farming Great Again!" before running out of his office and into a setting akin to that of
Animal Crossing.
Visual artists •
Morning Pledge, painting by
Thomas Kinkade Miscellaneous works On Tuesday, September 23, 2025, the DHS used a clip of comedian
Theo Von saying, "Heard you got deported, dude—bye!" in a 31-second video on Twitter touting the Trump administration's deportation statistics. In a
quote tweet, Von asked the DHS to remove the video, writing: "Yooo DHS i didnt approve to be used in this." The DHS video had been taken down as of Wednesday, September 24. On November 3, the news website
Axios reported that an attorney for the
Chicago Sun-Times had asked the Department of Homeland Security to stop using three of its photographs in the department's social media posts. Concerned about the independence and credibility of its reporting on government agencies, the
Sun-Times alleged that the DHS's unauthorized use of its photos created a "false implication" that the newspaper had given the department permission to use them. == Reactions and commentary ==