Another Taylor Swift song has been removed from a Trump-affiliated TikTok video, days after one of her tracks disappeared from a post by President Donald Trump's campaign account.
The official White House TikTok account posted a video Wednesday showing Trump greeting and interacting with supporters while Swift's 2021 song "I Bet You Think About Me" played in the background. The caption, "We know you think about us," referenced the song's title and lyrics.
By Thursday, the video remained online, but the song had been muted. The track was still available elsewhere on TikTok, including on other videos and through its standalone sound page. Swift has not publicly said whether she or her representatives requested the removal.
The latest episode follows a similar removal from the Team Trump TikTok account. Days earlier, the campaign account posted a video of Trump and First Lady Melania Trump watching fireworks set to Swift's "August," along with a caption saying the singer would be "super excited" that the account had used her song.
That video later lost access to the track, with TikTok displaying a notice that the copyright owner had not made the sound available in the user's country. Several Swift songs used in older videos posted by Trump-affiliated accounts have also since become unavailable.
TikTok allows copyright owners and their authorized representatives to submit infringement reports seeking the removal of material they believe uses protected work without permission. The platform also tells users when audio has been removed because of a copyright claim, although the notices displayed to viewers do not necessarily identify who submitted the request.
Music rights can also involve more than one copyright. Federal copyright law treats the underlying song, including its music and lyrics, separately from the particular sound recording used in a video. Those rights can be owned and licensed by different parties, meaning an artist's ownership of a recording does not necessarily establish who controls every use of the song on a social media platform.
No copyright lawsuit has been filed over the recent videos, and Swift has not publicly addressed the removals.
The singer has previously clashed politically with Trump. She endorsed Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election after previously criticizing Trump during his first term. Trump has repeatedly criticized Swift publicly, including after she endorsed Harris.
The White House and Trump-affiliated accounts have also used music by other prominent artists in political social media posts. Several musicians have publicly objected to the administration's use of their work, while other songs have subsequently disappeared or been muted without a public statement from the artist involved.
As of Thursday, the White House video featuring "I Bet You Think About Me" remained on TikTok without Swift's music. Neither Swift nor the White House has publicly identified who initiated the latest removal.
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