Donald Trump's campaign team used Taylor Swift's song "August" from the album "Folklore" (2020) as background music in a video of Trump with Melania that was uploaded to TikTok on 4 August 2026. In the video's caption, Trump's team wrote that they were confident Swift would be pleased with the use of her song.
On Friday 7 August, the "August" song in Trump's video experienced audio muting with the notice "The copyright owner hasn't made this sound available in your country." Although the song subsequently became available again in the United States, Trump's video remained muted. Fans discovered that at least 10 Trump posts using Swift songs, including "Red," "Eras Tour," and "I Knew You Were Trouble," had also been muted.
The finding suggests that Swift has apparently blocked Trump from using her songs in the future. Swift fans suspected that the Team Trump account risked being frozen by TikTok for violating copyright rules. Variety and Entertainment Weekly have reached out to representatives of Swift and the White House regarding the matter.
This incident is not the first between Trump and Swift. In 2024, Trump shared an artificially created image that incorrectly showed Swift endorsing his campaign, when Swift had actually supported Trump's opponent, Kamala Harris. Trump later said in an interview with Fox Business that he did not create the image and did not know where it came from.
