Katy Perry slammed the White House.
The White House TikTok account used Perry's song, Firework, while depicting a military strike.
Perry underlined that she didn't approve this. Neither does she condone it.
“My music is for bringing people together, not celebrating warfare,” pop singer Katy Perry wrote Saturday, bashing the White House's appropriation of her song, Firework. The alleged TikTok video uses the song while showing strikes on Iranian targets. The White House TikTok account was launched in August 2025 after President Donald Trump had threatened to ban the app.
The video has notched up more than 6 million views and 616,000 likes, with the caption, “Iran has been warned”, as per US media reports.
“I am deeply appalled and angry to see ‘Firework’ used on the @WhiteHouse TikTok account as a backing track for video footage of military strikes. I did not approve this, I was not asked, and I absolutely do not condone it,” Perry wrote on X.
“I wrote this song to be an anthem of hope, healing, and inner strength for people going through their darkest personal moments,” Perry continued in her tweet Saturday. “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.”
Pop Stars Who Have Slammed The White House
Perry joins a chorus of of pop stars slamming the White House social media team’s unauthorized use of their music, including the likes of Olivia Rodrigo and Sabrina Carpenter. Last year, Olivia Rodrigo condemned the Trump administration after one of her songs was featured in a government video promoting deportation efforts. Her comment, “don’t ever use my songs to promote your racist, hateful propaganda", was later taken down.
Singer Beyoncé also threatened legal action and issued cease-and-desist notices over videos that used her song Freedom as background music for footage of President Trump deplaning in Michigan. Perry has been frank about her Democratic views, supporting Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election, Joe Biden in 2020 and Hillary Clinton in 2016.
