Taylor Swift Silences Trump's TikTok: 'August' Removed
The singer successfully removed her song from a video posted by Trump's team, continuing a years-long feud with the former president.
The singer successfully removed her song from a video posted by Trump's team, continuing a years-long feud with the former president.
Taylor Swift has once again made a move in her battle for control over her own music. Her song "august" has been removed from a TikTok video posted by the Team Trump account, associated with former U.S. President Donald Trump. The video, which showed Donald and Melania Trump watching fireworks set to a track from the album Folklore, now plays without sound.
The post's description, which included hashtags #taylorswift, #maga, and #august, claimed the singer would be "extremely excited" that they were using her music, as reported by UNILAD. However, the excitement was evidently short-lived. Users in the U.S. noticed a message on the video on Friday: "The copyright owner has not made this sound available in your country."
This is not an isolated incident. As reported by Variety, the Team Trump profile also had the song "Father Figure" removed, which was used in a video posted back in November 2025. However, it's not a complete ban, the official White House TikTok account still uses Swift's song "The Fate of Ophelia" in a post from November last year, featuring Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and scenes of the U.S. military.
The White House has also previously used motifs from her "Eras" tour in posts marking the 250th anniversary of the U.S., showing how much Swift's music has become a subject of political tug-of-war.
The conflict between Taylor Swift and Donald Trump has deep roots. As early as 2018, ahead of the Tennessee Senate election, Swift publicly endorsed Democratic candidate Phil Bredesen over Republican Marsha Blackburn. Trump then commented, "I'm sure Taylor Swift doesn't know anything about [Blackburn]" and added, "I like her music about 25% less now, OK?"
The animosity escalated in 2024 when Swift endorsed Kamala Harris in the presidential election, and Trump wrote on social media: "I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT." Additional tension was sparked by electronic billboards in Madison Square Garden, the same venue where she married Travis Kelce in July, displaying the message "Trump is your president."
Swift's ability to remove her song from political content comes at a time when she has significantly more control over her catalog. In May 2025, she announced she had purchased the master recordings of her first six albums, ending a years-long legal battle that began in 2019 when her masters were sold to Scooter Braun and then to investment firm Shamrock Capital.
Although she now owns the original recordings, the rights to use the music on platforms like TikTok also depend on agreements with publishing houses such as Universal Music Publishing Group, which represents her songwriting catalog. The removal of the song may therefore depend on the type of content and the platform's licensing rights.
