Ben Stiller is the recent celebrity to have demanded White House take down military content made with unauthorised use of movie clips and music.
The 60-year-old actor posted a statement on X on March 6, criticising the White House after one of its social media posts included a clip from his 2008 comedy Tropic Thunder.
“Please remove the Tropic Thunder clip. We never gave you permission and have no interest in being a part of your propaganda machine. War is not a movie,” Stiller wrote in the caption.
The post in question, shared by US President Donald Trump’s administration, featured a compilation of movies and TV shows, including Top Gun, Superman, Transformers, Breaking Bad, and Iron Man, intercut with footage resembling US military operations.
“Justice the American way,” the White House wrote.
The White House has faced repeated backlash for using copyrighted music and film clips without permission, sometimes deleting posts after public criticism but leaving them on other platforms.
Just this week, Kesha criticised the White House for using her song Blow in a video showing fighter jets and explosions, calling the post “disgusting and inhumane” and saying she did not approve her music being used to promote violence.
Similarly, Sabrina Carpenter demanded the deletion of a video promoting ICE arrests that featured her song Juno. Carpenter called the video “evil and disgusting” and warned, “Do not ever involve me or my music to benefit your inhumane agenda.”
Céline Dion, Bruce Springsteen, Linkin Park, Neil Young, Olivia Rodrigo, and Radiohead also criticised the use of their work in official posts.
