American Pop star Kesha has joined the growing list of musicians rebuking Donald Trump and his administration for using their work without permission, demanding the White House stop using her 2011 hit “Blow” in a TikTok video promoting U.S. military actions against Iran.
The video, posted on February 10, featured a montage of American warplanes destroying naval targets set to Kesha’s dance-pop track, with the caption “Lethality 🔥🦅.” It has been viewed 14.5 million times and liked by 1.8 million users on TikTok.
“It’s come to my attention that The White House has used one of my songs on TikTok to incite violence and threaten war,” the 39-year-old singer wrote on Instagram and X on Monday.
“Trying to make light of war is disgusting and inhuman. I absolutely do NOT approve of my music being used to promote violence of any kind. Love always trumps hate. please love yourself and each other in times like this. This show of blatant disregard for human life and quite frankly this attack on all of our nervous systems is the opposite of what I stand for.”
She concluded her message with a pointed reference: “Also, don’t let this distract us from the fact that criminal predator Donald Trump appears in the [Epstein] Files over a million times.”
In a follow-up post, she issued a snappier demand: “Stop using my music, perverts.”
While Trump is a convicted felon, he has not been accused of or charged with any crimes in relation to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
White House Communications Director Steven Cheung mocked Kesha’s objection, using one of Trump’s characteristic phrases.
“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,” Cheung said.
The U.S. military confirmed that six service members have been killed in the Iran attacks since the weekend. Trump said he expects there to be additional casualties in a video posted to Truth Social Sunday. “Sadly, there will likely be more… before it ends, that’s the way it is. Likely be more,” he said.
Kesha joins a long list of musicians who have objected to Trump’s use of their music. Wikipedia maintains an alphabetized list of “Musicians who oppose Donald Trump’s use of their music” with 57 entries.
Just last week, Radiohead demanded that ICE take down a video using a choral version of their song “Let Down,” telling the administration to “go f*** yourselves.” In December, SZA blasted the White House for using her “Saturday Night Live” song in a pro-ICE post. Olivia Rodrigo similarly condemned the use of her track “all-american bitch” in a DHS video, calling it “racist, hateful propaganda.” Sabrina Carpenter also called out a post that used her song “Juno” to accompany footage of immigrant arrests, describing it as “evil and disgusting.”
Trump, his campaigns, and his administrations have a long history of using artists’ music without permission, with previous objections from artists including Celine Dion, Jack White, Steven Tyler, Beyoncé, Neil Young, and many others.
