The White House removed Zara Larsson's song Midnight Sun from one of its TikTok reels after the Swedish singer called the clip "dehumanising." The post, which remains on the White House's TikTok feed, used the track alongside footage that appears to show immigration enforcement raids.
The video carried the caption "never ending deportations," a phrase that echoes Larsson's lyric "never-ending midnight sun." The reel spliced together multiple clips of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and other law enforcement officers handcuffing men and placing them into vehicles.
Larsson published a three-minute reaction video on social media in which she criticised the post and reposted part of the original clip. In the response, which has already recorded more than 4.2 million views on TikTok, she holds her fingers in an L shape against her forehead and tells followers the White House material is "so dehumanising." She added, "These people in this video, they're real people."
She continued by arguing that "the vast majority of these people who are undocumented are regular people with jobs and they're just trying to have a better future." Larsson said the White House had used her song to sow "division," and defended the song's meaning as reflecting a connection between people and nature.
This is not the first time Larsson has objected to the administration's use of her music. Earlier this year she criticised a video showing President Donald Trump dancing that was overlaid with her song Lush Life. Other pop stars have also forced removals or warned the White House over song use, with Taylor Swift's track August removed from a reel in August and Olivia Rodrigo's song taken down after she described its use as "hateful propaganda." Sabrina Carpenter and Ariana Grande have separately told the administration not to use their music in White House posts.
The episode extends a recent pattern in which prominent artists publicly challenge political accounts for pairing their music with government messaging. The White House clip remains accessible on TikTok without Larsson's track, leaving the visual content in place while the soundtrack has been withdrawn.
