Trump's Team TikTok loses Taylor Swift's 'August' after video featuring Donald and Melania Trump

Taylor Swift's song "August" has been removed from a TikTok video posted by Donald Trump's campaign account after the track was initially used in a post featuring the US president and first lady Melania Trump.

The song, which appears on Swift's 2020 album Folklore, was included in a video uploaded to the Team Trump TikTok account earlier this week. The post showed Donald and Melania Trump standing together on a balcony while fireworks appeared in the background. Text displayed over the footage referenced August and Trump's presidency.

The caption accompanying the video also directly referenced Swift, saying the singer would be excited that her song had been used. The post included hashtags connected to Swift and the MAGA movement.

By Friday, August 7, viewers noticed that the music had disappeared from the video. In the US version of TikTok, the platform displayed a message stating that the copyright owner had not made the sound available in the country.

The change quickly drew attention from viewers, with one of the most prominent comments celebrating the removal of the track. The development also raised fresh questions about the use of Swift's music by Trump's political operation, particularly given the singer's publicly documented political opposition to Trump.

Variety reported that representatives for Swift and Trump had been contacted for comment. There was no public statement from either side in the report explaining why the "August" audio was removed.

The Team Trump account has a substantial following on TikTok and was established ahead of the 2024 US presidential election. The account has continued publishing political videos following Trump's return to the White House for a second term.

The removal is also not the first instance involving Swift's music on Trump related TikTok accounts. A Team Trump video posted in November 2025 that used her song "Father Figure" also later had its audio removed. At the same time, another Team Trump video featuring a version of Swift's "Red" remained available when Variety checked.

A separate video posted by the official White House TikTok account in November 2025 was also still using Swift's "The Fate of Ophelia", according to the report.

The latest incident comes against the backdrop of a long running public divide between Swift and Trump. In September 2024, Trump wrote on social media that he hated Swift after the singer publicly endorsed Kamala Harris during the presidential election campaign.

Swift had announced her support for Harris following the September 2024 presidential debate, explaining that she planned to vote for the Democratic candidate and her running mate Tim Walz.

Trump had also previously shared AI generated images falsely suggesting that Swift supported his presidential campaign. The singer was not actually endorsing Trump in those images, and the incident became another point of tension between the pop star and the former president.