The White House has made it personal with a pop superstar who complained that the administration used her music to soundtrack a war video without her permission.
Katy Perry, 41, posted on Saturday that she was “deeply appalled and angry” that her 2010 hit “Firework” had been used for a White House montage of military strike clips titled “Iran has been warned.”
The strikes were synced to Perry’s “Boom boom boom” lyrics.
Perry said she “was not asked” about the use of the song, adding, “I absolutely do not condone it.”
“To see a message of self-worth and upliftment weaponized to soundtrack destruction and violence is a complete violation of everything my song stands for,” she said. “My music is for bringing people together, not celebrating warfare.”
While the montage remains, “Firework” has now been removed from the TikTok video, which now has a note saying, “This sound isn’t available.”
On Monday, the White House TikTok account shared a new video soundtracked by another Perry song, 2012’s “Part of Me.”
Provocatively, in addition to using her music, the new video also splices in footage of Perry herself, taken from the song’s military-themed music video.
The singer appears spliced between images of Donald Trump and fighter jets in the White House’s version. At the start of the 15-second video, Perry is seen holding a weapon in military fatigues.
The post is captioned on TikTok, “Now look at me,” a lyric from the song.
Trump aide Kaelan Dorr posted the new video on X, tagging Perry with the word ‘Hi’ and a waving hand emoji.
Dorr had previously clapped back at Perry’s initial complaint about “Firework” by sharing a clip of the pop singer in fatigues in the “Part of Me” video, with the caption “This you?”
Perry filmed the video at USMC Camp Pendleton in 2012, and claimed to have used real Marines, rather than actors, in the clip.
“Even though I was sore and exhausted, I was so educated on people in the service, who I’ve always respected but the stuff they go through, and the kind of loyalty they possess, it’s very communal, and community,” Perry said in 2012.
“Not to sound weird, but it seems like the heart of America. Seriously, the heart,” she said.
The song became her seventh No.1 single on the Billboard chart.
The story is also further complicated by Perry selling her music rights to Litmus Music in 2023 for $225 million. The deal covers her stake in the master recordings and publishing rights for all her songs from her five biggest albums, including “Firework” and “Part of Me.”
These increasingly common mega deals often see artists lose control over where their songs are used, which is usually protected by retaining publishing rights, offering the power to approve or decline where a song is used.
It is not clear whether the deal still means Perry has a say in where her hit songs are used.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House and reps for Perry for comment.
Perry is now dating Justin Trudeau, who was Canada’s prime minister and Liberal Party leader from 2015 to 2025.
Last year, Perry created controversy by accepting Jeff Bezos’ invitation to join the Blue Origin space tourism flight. The pop singer missed Bezos’ wedding to Lauren Sánchez, however, as she was touring Australia.
Other musical artists to call out the Trump administration for using their songs in social media posts include Bruce Springsteen, Sabrina Carpenter, Neil Young, Jack White, Céline Dion, Kesha, and Ariana Grande.
Grande’s song “Bye” was used in an ICE video in June, prompting the singer to post in the comments section, “please do not ever use my music in relation to this barbaric, inhumane, heinous nonsense. f-- ice.”
In May, Kesha branded the White House “perverts” for using her 2011 song “Blow” in a TikTok video titled “Lethality.”
Taking a swipe at the president’s diversion techniques, she added, “Also, don’t let this distract us from the fact that criminal predator Donald Trump appears in the Files over a million times.”
The White House later removed both Kesha and Grande’s songs from their videos.
At the time, White House Communications Director Steven Cheung said, “All these ‘singers’ keep falling for this.” He went on, “This just gives us more attention and more view counts to our videos because people want to see what they’re bitching about.”
