Taylor Swift Trump has shifted from a social-media jab to a cleanup job: several Team Trump TikTok videos that used Taylor Swift songs now have no audio. One of the videos, posted on Aug. 3, had used her 2020 track "August" while showing Donald Trump and Melania Trump watching fireworks.
Aug. 3 TikTok and August
The Aug. 3 post carried the text "mood because it's August and Donald Trump is your president" and the caption "I’m sure @Taylor Swift is going to be super excited we used her song! #taylorswift #maga #august." It originally featured "August" from Folklore, then later lost its sound along with several other Team Trump TikTok posts that had used Swift songs.
That change leaves the videos without the track choices the account used to sell the message. For viewers, the altered posts now read less like music-led edits and more like stripped-down political clips, with the audio removal becoming the visible sign that the earlier use of Swift's catalog did not hold.
Red and Father Figure
In November, another Team Trump video used Taylor Swift's Life of a Showgirl track "Father Figure" in a montage honoring the president. On Aug. 6, a separate video said Swift wrote her fourth studio album Red about Republicans, displayed artwork imitating the album cover with Trump wearing a red MAGA hat, and asked, "Did you know Taylor Swift wrote a whole album about the color of the Republican Party?"
Those posts show a pattern rather than a one-off joke. Donald Trump and his team used Taylor Swift songs in TikTok posts even after he said, "I hate Taylor Swift," after she endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris ahead of the 2024 presidential election, then later called her "she's no longer HOT" in May 2025.
White House TikTok pattern
The White House has leaned into the same tactic on its official TikTok page. On July 23, it used Katy Perry's 2010 track "Firework" in a video showing U.S. military strikes in Iran, and on June 9 it paired Ariana Grande's 2024 song "Bye" with a video depicting federal agents arresting and handcuffing people.
Katy Perry said she was "deeply appalled and angry" and that she "did not approve this, I was not asked, and I absolutely do not condone it." Ariana Grande wrote, "Please do not ever use my music in relation to this barbaric, inhumane, heinous nonsense," and the audio and her comment were later removed.
Who cut the audio
The record points to the removal, not the operator behind it. Who removed the audio from the Team Trump TikTok videos, and whether the change came from the White House or TikTok, is not stated, which leaves responsibility for the cleanup as the open question in this dispute over music use.
