Coverage spread: 2 sources — 1 center · 1 right
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Folk-pop singer Noah Kahan and his songwriting collaborator Noah Levine publicly demanded that the White House stop using their music after President Donald Trump’s social media accounts posted a video on Monday featuring Kahan’s song “American Cars.” The clip showed Trump touring a General Motors test facility in Michigan and was shared by both the official White House and POTUS accounts. Once social media users began tagging Kahan — the Grammy-nominated artist behind the album “Stick Season” — he responded directly in the comments, writing that he would “never approve” of his music being used to support Trump or his administration. Levine’s response was more blunt, using profanity to tell Trump the song was not written for him.
A Growing Pattern of Artist Pushback
Kahan’s objection is the latest in a string of similar incidents involving the White House and its use of popular music in official social media content. Fox News situates the Kahan episode within a broader pattern: pop star Sabrina Carpenter criticized the White House in December 2025 for using her song “Juno” in a video montage depicting ICE agents detaining immigrants, calling the post “evil and disgusting.” Olivia Rodrigo similarly objected after her song “All-American B—-” was used in a Department of Homeland Security post urging immigrants to self-deport, saying she felt “enraged” and describing the agency’s messaging as “barbaric” and “racist” and “hateful propaganda”; the audio was eventually removed from that post. Katy Perry also condemned the use of her song “Firework” in footage depicting military strikes, saying she did not authorize its use. Fox News additionally notes that Nancy Sinatra criticized the administration’s use of her father Frank Sinatra’s “My Way,” calling it “sacrilege,” and mentions that Paul McCartney has commented on how a Beatles song has resonated with audiences “in Trump’s America.”
Official Response and Context
According to Fox News, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson previously responded to Olivia Rodrigo’s criticism by referencing her lyrics and suggesting she should thank federal law enforcement officers for their service rather than “belittle their sacrifice.” No specific response from the White House or DHS to Kahan’s or Levine’s comments is reported in the available coverage, and it remains unclear whether the “American Cars” video will be edited or removed, as happened with the Rodrigo-related post.
How the Coverage Compares
The Hill’s headline indicates that Kahan “slams” the White House but no article text was available from that outlet for detailed comparison. Fox News provides the fullest account, framing the story primarily through the lens of a recurring conflict between musicians and the Trump administration over unauthorized use of their songs in official government messaging. Fox’s coverage draws heavily on Variety for the direct quotes from Kahan and Levine and folds in commentary from “The Five,” a Fox News opinion program, discussing Sabrina Carpenter’s earlier reaction to a similar incident involving ICE. This suggests Fox is treating the Kahan episode less as a standalone controversy and more as another data point in an ongoing pattern of artists distancing themselves from Trump-related content — a framing reinforced by the article’s extensive recap of the Carpenter, Rodrigo, Perry, and Sinatra episodes. Because only one outlet’s full article text is available, it is not possible to assess whether other outlets frame the story differently, such as focusing more narrowly on Kahan himself or on the auto industry context of the video (Trump’s GM facility tour in Michigan).
Why It Matters
The recurring friction between musicians and the White House over social media use of copyrighted songs raises recurring questions about fair use, artist consent, and the optics of political messaging built around popular culture. For the artists involved, the objections serve as public statements distancing their work and personal brands from the Trump administration’s policies, particularly immigration enforcement actions by ICE and DHS. For the administration, the repeated incidents — spanning artists as varied as Kahan, Carpenter, Rodrigo, Perry, and posthumously Frank Sinatra — suggest either a pattern of using popular songs without securing licensing consent from the artists, or a willingness to use the songs regardless of artist objections given the attention such controversies generate. The dispute also highlights a broader cultural rift, with mainstream pop and folk artists broadly signaling disapproval of the administration’s use of their work, even as the administration and its supporters, per the DHS statement about Rodrigo, frame such criticism as ingratitude toward law enforcement.
Sources
Featured photo: Raph_PH via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)