Taylor Swift Song ‘August’ Removed From Trump TikTok Video

The audio from a TikTok clip on the official Donald Trump campaign account, which featured Taylor Swift's "August," has been quietly removed just four days after the video first surfaced. The original post on the "Team Trump" profile carried a caption that cheekily anticipated the singer's reaction: "I'm sure @Taylor Swift is going to be super excited we used her song! #taylorswift #maga #august." The footage showed the former president and Melania Trump on a balcony, with fireworks blazing behind them and an on-screen text overlay reading, "Mood because it's August and Donald Trump is your president." By Friday evening, eagle-eyed fans noticed the track—taken from Swift's 2020 album Folklore—had vanished from the post. U.S.-based viewers now see a notice stating, "The copyright owner hasn't made this sound available in your country."

This isn't the first time such a removal has occurred. A separate video on the same account, dated Nov. 6, 2025, which used Swift's "Father Figure," also lost its audio. Interestingly, a clip uploaded just a day ago featuring a rendition of Swift's "Red" still has its soundtrack intact as of this writing. The @TeamTrump account, which has grown to 14 million followers since its creation ahead of the 2024 U.S. presidential election, has remained highly active following Trump's victory. Neither Swift's nor Trump's representatives have responded to inquiries from Variety. The continued use of Swift's material is notable given her well-documented opposition to the former president, a stance that has been consistent for years. Swift, whose Eras Tour in 2023 became the highest-grossing concert tour in history, has long maintained strict control over her music catalog, making such unauthorized usage particularly fraught.

The tension between Swift and Trump dates back well before this incident. In September 2024, Trump took to his social media platform to vent, writing, "I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!" That outburst followed Swift's public endorsement of Kamala Harris, delivered via an Instagram post where she wrote, "I'm voting for @kamalaharris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them." Just a month earlier, Trump had shared AI-generated images falsely suggesting Swift supported his campaign, including one that depicted her as Uncle Sam with the caption "Taylor wants you to vote for Donald Trump." When Fox Business asked if he feared legal consequences from Swift over those fabricated images, Trump dismissed the concern, claiming they "were all made up by other people."

The removal of Swift's tracks from these political posts highlights a broader pattern of artists pushing back against unauthorized use of their work in political contexts. Under copyright law, a license is typically required for such usage, and rights holders can file takedown requests when their material is deployed without permission. The symbolic weight of these actions shouldn't be underestimated. As one music industry analyst put it, "When an artist like Swift pulls a track, it's not just a legal formality—it's a public statement about whose values she aligns with." Whether this latest removal stems from a direct intervention by Swift's team or a broader licensing complication remains unclear. Still, for a campaign that has repeatedly courted controversy over its engagement with popular culture, the optics are hard to dismiss. The move could also signal a shift in how streaming platforms handle copyright disputes involving public figures, potentially setting a precedent for future cases where artists object to political appropriation of their work.