Pop star Sabrina Carpenter and the publisher of popular Franklin the Turtle children’s book series, are shaming US President Donald Trump’s administration for using their work to promote its policies of mass deportation and extrajudicial killing.

The official White House X account posted a video this week showing federal agents chasing, apprehending, and detaining purported undocumented immigrants that featured Carpenter’s song Juno as its soundtrack.

On Tuesday morning (local time), Carpenter angrily denounced the White House for using her song in a mass deportation video.

“This video is evil and disgusting,” she wrote in response. “Do not ever involve me or my music to benefit your inhumane agenda.”

An administration spokesperson responded to Carpenter’s message by continuing to reference her lyrics, and said that “anyone who would defend these sick monsters” that the administration is deporting “must be stupid, or is it slow”, a line lifted from her hit song Manchild.

Carpenter is just the latest entertainer to object to the Trump White House using their work in propaganda videos, following Beyoncé, Olivia Rodrigo, Kenny Loggins, and the Foo Fighters.

Kids Can Press, meanwhile, slammed Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth after he posted a meme depicting Franklin the Turtle launching air-to-surface missiles at the boats of supposed “narco-terrorists” in the Caribbean.’

In a statement, the publisher said that it “strongly” condemned “any denigrating, violent, or unauthorised use of Franklin’s name or image”, such the one Hegseth posted on social media.

“Franklin the Turtle is a beloved Canadian icon who has inspired generations of children and stands for kindness, empathy, and inclusivity,” the published emphasised.

Hegseth posted the meme shortly after the Washington Post reported last week that US defence forces had conducted a “double-tap” strike against a suspected drug boat in September with the express purpose of killing two men who had survived the initial strike on the vessel.

Many legal scholars consider such an action to be murder or an overt war crime. In recent days, Hegseth and the Trump White House have tried to shift responsibility for authorising the second strike to US Admiral Frank Bradley.

Writing in his Substack page on Tuesday, journalist Paul Waldman noted that Hegseth’s attitude toward extrajudicial killing shouldn’t be a surprise since he had previously lobbied Trump during his first term in office to pardon convicted war criminals.

“This is a government that is not only full of sadists, but has elevated sadism to a place of honour in politics and policy,” he wrote.

“If you’re one of Trump’s underlings and you aren’t publicly expressing glee at the prospect of punishing and abusing those with less power, then you won’t really fit in. That’s the context in which we have to view this event.”