{"id":8447,"date":"2025-11-04T23:11:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T23:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/taylor-swift-fans-want-a-lawsuit-over-trumps-fate-of-ophelia-tiktok\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T23:11:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T23:11:09","slug":"taylor-swift-fans-want-a-lawsuit-over-trumps-fate-of-ophelia-tiktok","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/taylor-swift-fans-want-a-lawsuit-over-trumps-fate-of-ophelia-tiktok\/","title":{"rendered":"Taylor Swift Fans Want a Lawsuit Over Trump’s \u2018Fate of Ophelia\u2019 TikTok"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n\tSome Taylor Swift fans are up in arms over a video on the official White House TikTok account set to \u201cThe Fate of Ophelia\u201d \u2014 and many of them are encouraging the pop superstar to take legal action against President Donald Trump. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Monday (Nov. 3) TikTok video pairs Swift\u2019s The Life of the Showgirl <\/em>lead single \u2014 currently in its fourth week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 \u2014 with images of Trump and his associates. One frame shows Trump\u2019s mug shot while Swift sings, \u201cDon\u2019t care where the hell you\u2019ve been.\u201d The video ends with a photo of the president scooping McDonald\u2019s French fries under a slightly altered lyric reading, \u201cThe fate of America.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\tSwift has not commented on the post, but it\u2019s unlikely that she\u2019s happy about it. Historically, the star has not pledged her allegiance to Trump\u2019s team; she\u2019s only endorsed Democrats, including Kamala Harris in the 2024 election, and Trump, in turn, has insulted Swift repeatedly, including by posting \u201cI HATE TAYLOR SWIFT\u201d after the Harris endorsement.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the TikTok comments, some Swifties are putting on their lawyer hats. \u201cTAYLOR SWIFT SUE THEM FOR USING YOUR SONG!\u201d wrote one. \u201cI would absolutely LOVE if Tay found a way to sue them for this,\u201d wrote another. \u201cOne freaking huge lawsuit on the horizon,\u201d another prediction read.<\/p>\n

\n\tIs the White House\u2019s use of \u201cThe Fate of Ophelia\u201d legal? Probably not. While individual TikTok users can soundtrack their videos with pre-cleared songs, commercial entities are required to obtain so-called sync licenses from copyright owners. The White House did not return an inquiry on Tuesday (Nov. 4) as to whether they got a sync license for the post, but given Swift\u2019s public rebukes of Trump, and the fact that the singer is famously protective of her catalog, it\u2019s unlikely that she greenlit such a license.<\/p>\n

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\n\tAs Billboard<\/em> previously reported during Zach Bryan\u2019s public scuffle with the Trump administration over its use of his track \u201cRevival\u201d in an X post, there are a number of legal avenues for artists to take when their songs are used on social media without licenses. Swift\u2019s lawyers could send a cease-and-desist letter to the White House, or they might lodge a formal takedown notice directly with TikTok under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.<\/p>\n

\n\tIf these administrative procedures are unsuccessful, Swift could indeed bring a formal lawsuit against the federal government for copyright infringement. She\u2019s no stranger to intellectual property litigation, having both faced copyright claims herself and gone on the legal offense over the years.<\/p>\n

\n\tHowever, it\u2019s hard to imagine Swift taking the drastic step of suing the White House. The courts are public by nature, and Swift has a carefully maintained image. This is especially true in the political arena, where the singer\u2019s statements have always been measured (\u201cThe choice is yours to make,\u201d she told fans in her post endorsing Harris last year).<\/p>\n

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\n\tSwift, therefore, may not want to become publicly embroiled in what would almost certainly be viewed as a partisan legal battle. Nothing is certain, though, and only time will tell. <\/p>\n

\n\tSwift\u2019s reps did not return a request for comment on the matter.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some Taylor Swift fans are up in arms over a video on the official White House TikTok account set to \u201cThe Fate of Ophelia\u201d \u2014 and many of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8448,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[6129,2705,303,6986,3029,3028,182,963],"class_list":["post-8447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-fans","tag-fate","tag-lawsuit","tag-ophelia","tag-swift","tag-taylor","tag-tiktok","tag-trumps"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8447\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}