Sabrina Carpenter Leads Artists Blowback Against Trump
International pop sensation Sabrina Carpenter. (Image Carpenter on X)
Sabrina Carpenter Slams “Evil” Use of Her Song in ICE Raids Video as Trump’s Deportation Drive Intensifies
By TRH World Desk
New Delhi, December 3, 2025 — International pop star Sabrina Carpenter has publicly condemned the Trump administration after her music was used in a video promoting U.S. immigration raids, calling the clip “evil and disgusting.”
In a strongly worded post on X, Carpenter wrote: “This video is evil and disgusting. Do not ever involve me or my music to benefit your inhumane agenda.”
The post was a direct rebuke to a short video circulated from official White House-linked accounts that showed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents carrying out arrests, edited over a clip of Carpenter’s song — without her consent.
The controversy has triggered widespread backlash from artists, civil-rights groups and immigration advocates, as it collides with the Trump administration’s renewed hardline deportation campaign in 2025.
ICE Crackdown in Trump’s Second Term
Since returning to office, Donald Trump has launched one of the most aggressive immigration enforcement drives in modern U.S. history.
Key features of the 2025 crackdown include:
- Expanded ICE operations: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has scaled up workplace raids, neighbourhood sweeps and targeted arrests across multiple states.
- Focus on “mass deportations”: The administration has revived campaign-era pledges to accelerate removals of undocumented migrants, widening the pool beyond those with serious criminal convictions.
- Reduced “sensitive location” protections: Restrictions that once limited enforcement near schools, hospitals and places of worship have been relaxed, alarming local governments.
- Sanctuary city confrontations: Federal authorities have clashed with state and city administrations resisting cooperation with ICE operations.
- Public-facing messaging: For the first time at this scale, immigration enforcement footage is being openly amplified on official government social media — a shift critics describe as “deterrence through spectacle.”
Human-rights groups argue that the new phase of enforcement has created an atmosphere of fear in immigrant communities, disrupted families, and raised due-process concerns. Supporters of the policy, however, say it restores border control and strengthens internal security.
Which Sabrina Carpenter Song Was Used?
The ICE raids video controversially used a clip from “Juno”, a track by Sabrina Carpenter from her 2024 album Short n’ Sweet.
- Song: Juno
- Original context: A playful, flirtatious pop track that became popular on social media and streaming platforms.
- Government use: The song’s audio was overlaid on footage of ICE arrests, reframing light-hearted pop music against images of detentions — a juxtaposition that sparked immediate outrage.
Sources close to Carpenter indicated she was not consulted and did not approve the use of her music for any political or government messaging.
Who Is Sabrina Carpenter? A Quick Profile
Sabrina Carpenter is one of the most commercially successful American pop artists of the current decade.
- Born: 1999, Pennsylvania, U.S.
- Breakthrough: Rose to fame as a Disney Channel actress before transitioning into music.
- Musical style: Pop, dance-pop, and R&B-influenced tracks.
- Major albums:
- Eyes Wide Open (2015)
- Evolution (2016)
- Singular: Act I & II (2018–2019)
- Emails I Can’t Send (2022)
- Short n’ Sweet (2024)
- Global popularity: Her recent work has dominated international charts and streaming platforms, boosted further by major tours and viral singles.
Carpenter has cultivated an image rooted in personal expression, youth culture and creative independence — a sharp contrast, she says, to the use of her music in state enforcement propaganda.
Why the Controversy Is Politically Explosive
The use of a pop anthem alongside immigration arrests has intensified debate over:
- Consent and artistic control in political messaging
- Ethics of using popular culture to normalise coercive state action
- Government propaganda in the social-media age
- The human cost of deportation-driven enforcement policies
Critics argue the video attempt to “aestheticise” enforcement violence, while supporters within conservative circles praise it as a bold messaging strategy to deter illegal immigration.
Sabrina Carpenter’s blistering rebuke of the Trump administration has turned a routine ICE enforcement video into a flashpoint at the intersection of celebrity politics, immigration policy and government propaganda. Carpenter has added to the pushback from artists and civil-liberties voices, growing louder — and more confrontational, against the Trump administration’s coercive measures.
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