Los Angeles, March 7 – Hollywood actor Ben Stiller has criticized the White House's official social media account. The account used a clip from “Tropic Thunder.”
Ben Stiller, 60, posted a statement on X (formerly Twitter) after the Trump White House posted a video featuring a compilation of several movies and TV shows, including “Top Gun,” “Superman,” “Transformers,” “Breaking Bad,” “Iron Man,” and Stiller's 2008 comedy “Tropic Thunder,” interspersed with clips seemingly of U.S. military operations. According to “People” magazine, this video was captioned with “Justice, the American way.” Stiller then responded, "Hey White House, please remove the ‘Tropic Thunder’ clip. We never gave you permission, and we have no interest in being part of your propaganda machine. War is not a movie.”
According to “People,” Ben Stiller is one of many celebrities who have spoken out after the White House used their content on its social media channels, including Celine Dion, Bruce Springsteen, Linkin Park, Neil Young, Olivia Rodrigo, and Radiohead.
This week, Kesha spoke out after the White House used her song “Blow” in a video featuring a fighter jet firing a missile at a naval ship and an explosion. In an Instagram Stories post on March 2, Kesha, 39, wrote, “It has come to my attention that The White House has used one of my songs on TikTok to incite violence and threaten war. Trying to make light of war is disgusting and inhumane.”
The singer added that she "absolutely" does not "approve of my music being used to promote violence of any kind.”
In response to Kesha's statement, White House Director of Communications Steven Cheung reposted her words on X, adding, “All these ‘singers’ keep falling for this. This just gives us more attention and more view counts to our videos because people want to see what they’re bitching about. Thank you for your attention to this matter.”
Earlier, the Trump Administration had shared a video highlighting recent ICE arrests in December, which was heavily condemned.