Taylor Swift Songs Removed From Trump Campaign and White House Social Media Posts, Reuters Confirms

WASHINGTON — Several Taylor Swift songs have been pulled from social media videos posted by President Donald Trump's campaign and the White House after copyright claims, according to Reuters, in the latest chapter of an increasingly public standoff between the pop superstar and the president's communications team.

The removals affected multiple posts published over the past several weeks across TikTok accounts affiliated with Trump's campaign and the White House, which had used at least three different Swift songs in videos featuring the president over that stretch.

'August' pulled after a pointed caption

The most recent removal involved "August," a track from Swift's 2020 album "Folklore." The song had been used in a video posted by the Team Trump TikTok account showing Trump and first lady Melania Trump watching a fireworks display. The post tagged Swift directly and included the caption, "I'm sure @Taylor Swift is going to be super excited we used her song!" according to CelebrityAccess.

That caption appeared to intentionally provoke a reaction from Swift, according to AOL's reporting, which noted on-screen text in the video reading, "Mood because it's August and Donald Trump is your president." Following a copyright claim, the song has since been removed from the video, with the platform now displaying a message stating that the audio isn't available.

Not the first Swift track to disappear from Trump content

According to Billboard and Variety's reporting, "August" was not the first Swift song removed from Trump-affiliated content. Two additional tracks from her 2025 album "The Life of a Showgirl" — "Father Figure" and "Opalite" — have also vanished from earlier posts after similarly being flagged.

One of those videos, posted in November 2025, used "Father Figure" as the soundtrack for a clip featuring Trump alongside his youngest son, Barron, according to AOL's detailed account of the post. The video paired the lyric "I was your father figure" with footage of Trump and his son, followed by the lyric "You pulled the wrong trigger" set against a clip referencing the alleged assassination attempt against Trump in July 2024. The video closed with the lyric "This empire belongs to me" set against footage of Trump waving to a crowd from a helicopter outside the White House.

A White House spokesperson previously told multiple news outlets that the video was created because the administration knew news outlets "would breathlessly amplify" the content, according to Reuters.

Trump's team responds with a mocking post

Rather than avoiding Swift's music altogether following the removals, Trump's campaign team appeared to lean into the conflict. According to TMZ, the Team Trump TikTok account later posted a mocked-up version of the artwork from Swift's 2012 album "Red," superimposing Trump's face onto the cover and captioning it, "Did you know Taylor Swift wrote a whole album about the color of the Republican Party." The post referenced a live performance version of Swift's song "Red," presenting it as "Red (Trump's Version)."

That track, too, was later removed from the account, with a message indicating the copyright owner had not made the audio available for use, according to i24NEWS.

Broader pattern of using popular music in political content

The Trump communications team, which is highly active on social media, has regularly posted videos featuring hit songs alongside politically charged imagery covering topics including the administration's immigration crackdown, U.S. military operations against Iran, and the arrest of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, according to Reuters. Swift's music is not the only artist catalog to appear in such videos, and the pattern has drawn criticism from a broader coalition of musicians.

According to i24NEWS, dozens of artists, including Sabrina Carpenter and Ariana Grande, have separately called on the Trump administration not to use their music in political content.

A long-running tension between Swift and Trump

Swift has not commented publicly on the recent song removals, according to multiple outlets, and neither the White House nor a representative for Swift immediately responded to requests for comment from Reuters or other news organizations covering the story.

The dispute is the latest flashpoint in a yearslong tension between the two public figures. Swift endorsed Trump's 2024 Democratic rival, then-Vice President Kamala Harris, ahead of last year's election. During the 2020 campaign cycle, Swift posted on social media that voters should be "WELL AWARE we do not want him as our president," referring to Trump.

Trump has repeatedly criticized Swift in turn. After her endorsement of Harris, Trump wrote on social media, "I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!" He later wrote, "Has anyone noticed that, since I said 'I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT,' she's no longer 'HOT?'"

The tension has also extended into more direct territory involving Swift's public image. Trump previously shared AI-generated images on his social media platform Truth Social that falsely suggested Swift and her fans supported his 2024 campaign, including one image depicting Swift as Uncle Sam accompanied by text reading, "Taylor wants you to vote for Donald Trump." When asked about the origin of those images by a Fox Business correspondent at the time, Trump said, "I don't know anything about them other than somebody else generated them. I didn't generate them. These were all made up by other people."

As of this writing, it remains unclear whether Trump's campaign and White House social media accounts will continue using Swift's music in future content despite the repeated copyright removals, or whether the recent mocking response involving the "Red" album artwork signals an intent to keep testing the boundaries of that conflict. Neither Swift's team nor the White House has issued a formal statement addressing the pattern of removals as of Sunday.