The Sabrina Carpenter-White House fight is about more than a song

[Thiệu Ngô]

Co-opting lyrics from the singer’s song ‘Juno’ is part of a political strategy known as 'trendy fascism.'

By Noor Noman

The social media showdown between Sabrina Carpenter and the White House is not merely the latest instance of a high-profile musician pushing back against this administration’s appropriation of their work. It’s also a microcosm of a jarring political strategy: President Donald Trump’s administration is attempting to make cryptofascism more accessible by infusing its messaging with pop culture.

The fracas kicked off on Monday when the White House posted a promotional video on its official X and TikTok accounts set to Carpenter’s hit song, “Juno.” The post is captioned, “Have you ever tried this one? Bye-bye.” The lyrics “Have you ever tried this one?” repeat each time the video montage shows a new victim (predominantly non-white folx) being hunted and attacked by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents like it’s sport. The shtick is that it co-opts a ritual from Carpenter’s global tour, which ended last week, when “she would playfully ‘arrest’ someone in the crowd with fuzzy pink handcuffs” while performing the song, Rolling Stone notes.

The vibe is state-sponsored terrorism but make it cute — in other words, disturbing. The footage makes a mockery of people at their most vulnerable and scared.

By Tuesday morning, Carpenter had snapped back with a response on X that, in 30 hours, had garnered 1.4 million likes (compared with 70,000 for the initial ad, after two days). The Grammy-winning songstress did not mince words: “This video is evil and disgusting. Do not ever involve me or my music to benefit your inhumane agenda.”

Asked Tuesday for comment, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson gave a statement to MS NOW that was too cute by half: “Here’s a Short n’ Sweet message for Sabrina Carpenter,” it said, making reference to the title of the album on which “Juno” appears. “[W]e won’t apologize for deporting dangerous criminal illegal murderers, rapists, and pedophiles from our country. Anyone who would defend these sick monsters must be stupid, or is it slow?” (Jackson, it would seem, is unfamiliar with irony.)

It’s tempting to get lost in the trolling of it all. But there’s actually a deeper dynamic at play. The video montage and even the glib comment speak to a strategy the Trump White House has attempted to execute across social media in which the cryptofascism of MAGA — in this instance, the violent targeting of immigrants and other vulnerable minorities in pursuit of its ultraright, white supremacist agenda — encroaches on and co-opts conventionally more liberal domains to widen its reach and popularity.

In her book, “Trendy Fascism: White Power Music and the Future of Democracy,” political scientist Nancy Love explains that “trendy fascism” is “a neo-fascist aesthetic politics,” in which supporters of crypto-fascism and white supremacy deploy their messages across powerful cultural domains such as music and social media platforms, which are breeding grounds for viral trends.

Trump’s White House goes a step further, often integrating elements of mainstream pop culture into its messaging, as it did with Carpenter’s song. Love argues that “music functions as a mode of public discourse, even though its meanings are ambiguous and fluid.” The X video is a prime example of co-opting popular culture in order to position a political agenda as “trendy.”

Whether “trendy fascism” is actually working is less clear. ICE is falling far short of its recruitment goals — even after relaxing standards to enroll. And Trump’s approval rating last week was 36%, which rivals only his first-term low, 34%, in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. But their floundering is also an argument for trying new tactics, possibly including making a play for more supporters by engaging popular figures with their messaging.

In Love’s analysis, trendy fascism evinces “the complex relationship between the cultural politics of white supremacy and liberal democracy.” In a sense, each feeds off the other. The cultural politics of white supremacy need the pluralism of liberal democracy to rage against, while the primacy of free speech within liberal democratic circles, even when that speech is inherently violent, is just one way liberalism is implicated in these creative expressions of white supremacy. While some of the principles are in fundamental opposition, they also have a symbiotic relationship of sorts.

If likes and engagement are any guide, Carpenter is winning this particular battle, handily. Perhaps the White House would’ve been better off quoting from “Sharpest Tool,” another track from “Short n’ Sweet:” “We were going right, then you took a left.”