Zara Larsson Condemns White House Use of Her Song in Deportation Video
Left 100%
Center 0%
Right 0%
2 left · 0 center · 0 right
What happened
The White House posted a TikTok video that used Swedish pop singer Zara Larsson’s song “Midnight Sun” over footage of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and other law-enforcement personnel handcuffing people and putting them into vehicles, captioned “never ending deportations” in a riff on the lyric “never-ending midnight sun.” Larsson posted a reaction video calling the clip “dehumanising,” saying the people shown were “real people,” and calling those behind the post “fucking losers.” The song was later removed from the White House post; the video remained visible on the account. The BBC said it had contacted the White House for comment.
Sourcing check · Fully on the record · 4 articles
4 of 4 articles cite a named source for the story. It was on the record from the first report.
What these terms mean and how they're counted
- On the record · names a source 4 of 4
- On the record means the article cites a source by name for the story's main claim: a person, or an institution speaking officially, such as a company statement or a named agency's spokesperson. The opposite is an unnamed source. The count is how many of the counted articles cite at least one such source; the names are everyone named across them, each once however the articles spell it. Here: Zara Larsson
- Primary evidence · cites a document or data 0 of 4
- Primary evidence means the article cites a record you could check yourself: a court filing or ruling, a dataset or report, a recording or transcript, an official statement or press release, market data. A quote is not a document. The count is how many articles cite one. Here: None cited.
- Credits another outlet 0 of 4
- The article says the story comes from another outlet's reporting (“first reported by Reuters”). Those articles relay the story; they are not independent confirmation. Here: Each article presents its own reporting.
- Unnamed sources 0 of 4
- The main claim is attributed to people who are not identified: “people familiar with the matter”, “officials said”. The count is how many articles do this.
- How it developed
- When the first report landed and whether it named anyone; when the first named source and the first document appeared. Here: First report Sep 17, 19:12 UTC by The Hill, naming its source.
- Not counted 0
- Opinion, analysis and video pieces, and articles too short to assess. Every count above is out of the counted articles. An article republished under a new headline is one article.
This is about who is cited, not whether the story is true. Each source below says what it names. How we count
Omitted — what each side leaves out
Unpacked
Right-leaning coverage never reports that the White House already stripped Midnight Sun from the deportation video. Left-leaning coverage at the BBC does, and it adds that earlier artist protests had already ended with tracks coming down. The BBC says the song has been removed from the post while the video remains on TikTok. Breitbart stays inside her outburst and never mentions a takedown, so the episode reads as a lone rant instead of another lost soundtrack.
The people on screen get opposite labels. Left-leaning coverage, quoting Larsson through the BBC, calls them "undocumented". Right-leaning coverage recasts her stance as a case for "illegal aliens".
Who licensed Midnight Sun for the White House account, and what did the administration say when asked?
Bottom line
Read only Breitbart and you would not know the White House already pulled Midnight Sun off its ICE reel, a removal the BBC puts on the record.
The receipts — 5 facts one side's coverage lacks
- Midnight Sun has been removed from the White House TikTok post, though the video remains visible
- Taylor Swift's August disappeared from a reel shared by the Trump administration
- Larsson's reaction video had more than 4.2 million views on TikTok
- Larsson said we're not that different from the people in this video
- Larsson said she was born in Sweden and has healthcare and an education
The Left View
Left-leaning outlets frame Larsson’s reaction as a rebuke of scoring immigration-arrest footage with her music in a way she called “dehumanising.” The BBC reports she said “the vast majority of these people who are undocumented are regular people with jobs and they’re just trying to have a better future,” accused the White House of sowing “division” and treating the subject as meme content, and said her lyrics reflect a connection between people and nature. They place her among artists including Sabrina Carpenter, Ariana Grande, Taylor Swift, and Olivia Rodrigo who have told the Trump administration not to use their songs, after which some tracks were taken down.
The Right View
Breitbart frames Larsson as having “erupted” and “rambled,” quoting her wish to tell the video’s makers “we’re not that different from the people in this video” and her claim that “the biggest difference between us, is that we were dealt a different hand in life,” citing her Swedish birth, healthcare, and education. The outlet presents her as a foreign singer arguing, from outside the United States, that undocumented immigrants should keep arriving there, and highlights her statement that she does not understand “how it could be the worst thing in the world to be an undocumented immigrant.” It emphasizes her insults that the video was “so fucking uncool” and that White House officials were “such fucking losers.”
Our Take (balanced)
The left’s strongest argument is that pairing a pop hit with arrest footage reduces real people to viral content and contradicts the artist’s intent, backed by Larsson calling the clip “dehumanising,” insisting those shown are “real people” with jobs, and by other artists who likewise prompted songs to be pulled from White House posts. The right’s strongest argument is that a Swedish celebrity is attacking U.S. immigration enforcement she does not live under, recasting unlawful presence as unlucky birth rather than a legal status, as in her remark that she does not see how being undocumented could be “the worst thing in the world.” The central unresolved tension is whether overlaying a commercially released song on deportation footage is dehumanizing political messaging or ordinary government communication of enforcement, and what weight an artist’s objection carries against that use.
3 sources
- Zara Larsson bashes White House over ‘Midnight Sun’ ICE video: ‘You guys are such f—ing losers’
- Zara Larsson criticises White House for using her song in deportation video
- Zara Larsson Erupts at ‘F**king Losers’ in White House Using Her Song to Promote Deportations: ‘We’re Not That Different from the People in the Video’
More stories
The week's bottom lines, in your inbox
One email a week: the five stories that mattered and what they actually mean. Free.