Radiohead have condemned Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s use of their song “Let Down” in a recent video, confirming the song was used without permission and calling for the video to be taken down.
“We demand that the amateurs in control of the ICE social media account take it down,” the band said in a statement. “It ain’t funny, this song means a lot to us and other people, and you don’t get to appropriate it without a fight. Also, go fuck yourselves.”
The statement comes after ICE used a choral version of the track in a video on X earlier this month, with the song and video accompanies by a caption that said that “American citizens raped and murdered by those who have no right to be in our country.”
It’s not the Trump administration’s first dust-up with members of the influential English rock group. Johnny Greenwood, the band’s lead guitarist and a film composer, demanded alongside writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson that the music from their film Phantom Thread be pulled from the Melania documentary, saying the music wasn’t licensed.
It’s also far from the first case of a prominent musical act deploring the Trump administration’s use of their music in ICE videos. Others including Olivia Rodrigo and Sabrina Carpenter have called out ICE as well, with Carpenter saying to “not ever involve me or my music to benefit your inhumane agenda” after ICE used her song “Juno,” with the singer further calling the video in question “evil and disgusting.”
Trump has proven wildly unpopular among many recording artists for years, picking fights with acts like Bruce Springsteen and Jack White in the last year alone. ICE has been just the latest lightning rod for artists, with Bad Bunny, Olivia Dean and Billie Eilish all either condemning ICE or voicing their support for immigrants during their acceptance speeches at the Grammy Awards earlier in February. SZA called out the agency during the press room after her Grammy win as well, calling it “incredibly dystopian that we’re dressed up and able to celebrate accolades and the material world and people are getting snatched up and shot in the face on the street.”
