Subject to Debate: Should Stars Like Sabrina Carpenter Respond to Presidential Trolling?
The White House tried to use her music to promote ICE. Unlike Taylor Swift, Carpenter fought back. Did she fall for rage bait, or do the right thing?
The president has a lot on his plate these days.
He’s got a grotesquely oversized ballroom to build, fake awards to collect from notoriously corrupt athletic organizations, and important cabinet meetings to doze through.
Given Trump’s demanding schedule, you might wonder why the leader of the free world has chosen to pick a fight with Sabrina Carpenter, the pint-sized pop star known for innuendo-laden earworms about caffeinated beverages?
It all began last week when the White House, ever-responsive to the needs of the American people, decided it was time to go after the girl from that Disney Channel spinoff of Boy Meets World.
On the platform formerly known as Twitter, the White House account posted a video showing ICE agents tackling, chasing, cuffing, and roughly handling detainees. It was accompanied by a snippet of her song “Juno,” in which Carpenter asks, “Have you ever tried this one?”, a saucy reference to adventurous sexual positions that the administration was using to celebrate the state-sponsored harassment of civilians.
Carpenter quickly fired back. “This video is evil and disgusting. Do not ever involve me or my music to benefit your inhumane agenda,” she tweeted. Despite an Elon Musk-addled algorithm that boosts MAGA voices (no matter where they actually live), Carpenter’s response went viral, getting retweeted 225,000 times. To use the parlance of Old Twitter, the White House got thoroughly “ratioed.”
By Friday, Trump’s social media minions had removed the video—only to replace it with something that was both creepier and less effective: a badly manipulated version of a promo for Carpenter’s recent Saturday Night Live appearance. “I might need to arrest someone for being too illegal,” she seems to say to cast member Marcello Hernandez. (In the actual clip, she says, “I might need to arrest someone for being too hot.”)
Republicans have a long history of totally missing the point of famous songs. And since he entered politics a decade ago, Trump has repeatedly used songs from artists, many of whom vocally oppose him, without their permission. Quite a few of these musicians, including Jack White, Aerosmith, Beyoncé, Neil Young, and the Rolling Stones, have threatened legal action in response.
But lately, the White House has elevated this habit of musical misappropriation into a full-blown political strategy.
The administration appears to be focusing its venom on a very specific kind of star: young, female musicians who have written with candor about their sexual and romantic lives (in ways that particularly resonate with women and girls), and who have, to varying degrees, spoken out against the MAGA agenda.
Carpenter, for instance, helped register thousands of voters ahead of the 2024 election, encouraged fans to donate to the National Immigration Law Center, and used the VMA stage in September to show support for the trans community. She is also known for sexually provocative lyrics, and songs that mock immature men (and celebrate the more competent ones).
Fellow Disney kid-turned-pop star Olivia Rodrigo got the same treatment last month, in an Instagram post from the Department of Homeland Security and White House that used her song, “All-American Bitch,” to accompany an ominous video urging undocumented immigrants to self-deport.
Rodrigo commented on the post, “don’t ever use my songs to promote your racist, hateful propaganda.” The song was subsequently removed from Instagram, but the video remains on the platform with no soundtrack. The “Drivers License” singer is one of the most politically outspoken stars of her generation: she not only endorsed Kamala Harris last year, but has condemned ICE raids in her native Los Angeles, handed out contraceptives at her concerts, and denounced the “horrific” suffering in Gaza.
Then there’s Taylor Swift, who was targeted by Trump’s digital goons on TikTok last month. The White House account used a much-memed verse from her song “The Fate of Ophelia” with a montage highlighting the president’s supposed accomplishments.
MAGA operatives are singling out these young, female stars in a way that’s calibrated to fire up the misogynist hordes online. The administration has intentionally latched onto songs connected to social media trends (like “Juno”), and weaponized seemingly innocuous, fan-generated memes in order to sow division.
According to Zeteo, the administration is using popular music from artists known for opposing Trump “in order to trigger a negative response from a famous liberal and provide further amplification of their pervasive culture war.”
“We do it on purpose,” an unnamed White House official told the outlet.
The administration clearly wants to frame these petty attacks as part of a deviously brilliant plot to bait liberal snowflakes. They are part of a broader vengeance campaign against the cultural institutions who scorned Trump during his first term, from late-night comedians to the Kennedy Center.
But these tactics also carry a whiff of desperation, like the angry ramblings of a spurned ex who can’t get over the girl—or in this case, women—who rejected him.
Just as he lashes out at the “nasty” female journalists (most recently, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins) who dare to ask him even mildly tough questions, Trump has a long-standing habit of picking fights with notable women, often for reasons that make no sense to anyone but him. (Exhibit A: his bizarre vendetta against Kristen Stewart). Over many decades in public life, he has criticized famous women for their looks, their careers, and their personal lives.
Since returning to office, he has threatened to legally punish the female stars who’ve crossed him; calling for Beyoncé’s prosecution and for Rosie O’Donnell to be stripped of her citizenship. At the same time, he’s eagerly heaped praise on women like Sydney Sweeney and Brittany Mahomes, simply for being suspected of supporting him.
This means that women like Carpenter face a real dilemma when Trump takes aim at them: Is it better to fight back, preserve the integrity of their music, and send a message about their creative and political values, whatever the fallout may be? Or, by responding to intentional rage bait, are they just feeding the (very powerful) trolls in the White House? Worse still, are they actually helping Trump by creating a noisy distraction from more damaging issues like the cost of living or the Epstein files?
Carpenter’s forceful rebuke differs starkly from that of Swift, her friend, collaborator, and fellow Pennsylvania native, who has said nothing about the White House TikTok featuring “Fate of Ophelia” since it was posted a month ago. (Her fans, though, have had plenty to say in the comments.)
Swifties have argued that their idol is better off not responding to Trump’s provocations, that it’s a no-win situation even for someone with vast financial resources and an even bigger platform as the biggest pop star on the planet.
In the past, Swift has acted, well, swiftly to shut down unauthorized use of her music and likeness. The billionaire songstress waged a long, emotional campaign to buy back the rights to her first six records (and, along the way, rerecorded four of the albums so that she’d own the masters).
This is a woman who cares deeply about controlling her creative output and image, and is also keenly aware of the influence she wields in a polarized political climate. The Netflix documentary Miss Americana follows Swift, who was once reluctant to weigh in on politics, as she decided to endorse Democratic candidates in the 2018 midterms. “I need to be on the right side of history,” she told her concerned father through tears in a pivotal scene from the film.
Last year, when Trump shared a deceptive, AI-generated image suggesting that she had endorsed him, the singer used it as an opportunity to clarify her stance and endorse Harris. (Trump responded in the calm, dignified way we’ve come to expect from him.)
But since Trump returned to the White House in January, she has said nothing about the administration’s actions, even on issues she has championed in the past, like LBTQ+ rights, reproductive freedom, and racial justice.
Perhaps more than any other living celebrity, Swift understands the power of a coded message. By now, she not only expects but counts on her fans to parse her every move, searching every last lyric and Instagram caption for hidden meaning. By saying nothing—about Trump’s cruel policies, or his co-opting of her music for authoritarian propaganda—she’s leaving a void that others will inevitably fill with speculation. (Especially as she associates with MAGA podcast bros.)
Swift, who has prided herself on boosting younger artists, should take a page from Carpenter and Rodrigo, who showed that defeating the White House, at least on social media, isn’t actually that hard. Without a killer soundtrack to hide behind, it becomes that much easier for the public to decipher the not-so-coded message of just how pathetic trolls are.
Meredith Blake is the culture columnist for The Contrarian
I could see the argument to not add fuel to the fire but the MAGA troglodytes are not particularly perceptive...or smart. It's possible they will assume that the artist is on Trump's side. It's also possible that some of us liberal Dems will complain that they aren't fighting back. The artist can be in a no-win situation. However, I believe that fighting back is the correct action because it brings attention to the low-class nature of this administration, which their even stupider followup responses further confirm. And I believe people take notice of this.
I respect any artist, male or female, who steps up to defend their work. It's THEIRS and they have a right to say how it can be used. They can sell the rights if they want to, and let politicians use their music even if they don't like the candidate if they want to. But random candidates just stealing their art... nah.
And Swift has shown a willingness to fight back over and over again. If she's not making a fuss over this one, I am sure it's because she has decided her way is better, and she's not backing down from any fear of Trumpian retribution.