The White House has taken its immigration offensive to an unexpected terrain: pop culture. In videos shared through TikTok, the Donald Trump Administration has turned Bad Bunny into the soundtrack of its deportation campaign, scoring images of arrests carried out by the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) with the Puerto Rican’s song LA MuDANZA. The propaganda operation presents deportations as a political triumph, in a montage full of irony, provocation, and cultural appropriation.
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The White House publication makes use of Latino symbols for its own narrative; the decision to use LA MuDANZA is no coincidence. The Puerto Rican singer has openly questioned Trump’s immigration policies and in recent years had already turned his music into a platform to denounce anti-immigrant discourse. He also excluded the United States from his last world tour. Now, the White House takes his own material to accompany scenes of arrests, while toughening its immigration offensive and seeking to project an image of effectiveness with language that tries to go viral.
The video, published on July 30 on the White House’s TikTok account, shows images of Trump, ICE agents, and arrests of undocumented people. In the montage, a line from LA MuDANZA was rewritten on screen to turn it into a direct compliment to the Republican president, to reinforce the mocking tone. The verse was altered and translated into English as ‘A round of applause for Donald J. Trump because he really crushed it’. For now, neither Bad Bunny nor his representatives have publicly commented on the use of the song in the White House video.
@whitehouse We’re making America great again
♬ original sound – The White House
This Friday, the administration struck again after releasing another clip, now with the song Hoe Phase by Drake, with the same intention of praising the deportation campaign with popular music. The video shows archival footage of aircraft, the United States-Mexico border, and people detained by ICE. The text accompanying the post states ‘Let us remind you that if you are here illegally, you will go home’.
This is not the first time the Trump government has used songs by well-known artists without their consent. A long list of singers has confronted the Republican over the use of their work in rallies, official events, and posts from his administration, including Neil Young, Katy Perry, Adele, Bruce Springsteen, The Rolling Stones, Rihanna, R.E.M., Sabrina Carpenter, The White Stripes, among many others.
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Trump’s immigration offensive is not limited to U.S. territory. Just this Thursday, the president launched strong criticisms towards Spain and its migration crisis that has resulted in the massive entry of thousands of Moroccans into Spanish territory. He described the situation as “terrible” and warned that “that will be us in three years if the wrong side comes to power. If the Democrats come to power, you will not live a very good life”.
The State Department backed his stance with a message published this morning: “The United States stands in solidarity with the people of Spain and all Europeans, in the face of this atrocious violation of their sovereignty and human rights. This unacceptable incident is the direct result of the deliberate efforts of the Spanish Government to allow and facilitate massive illegal migration to Europe. We are considering actions to defend Americans inside and outside the country against this threat and are prepared to assist other European allies who are contemplating similar options.”
ICE records an unprecedented increase in its interior enforcement operations so far in fiscal year 2026, maintaining a record population of 65,765 people in custody and 183,181 under electronic monitoring. With peaks of up to 1,470 daily arrests in July, the agency has executed 356,389 deportations, averaging 1,260 removals daily. Although 60% of detainees have prior records, TRAC Immigration data indicates that 70.6% of new entrants lack previous criminal convictions.
