The White House posted a TikTok montage of missile strikes in Iran set to Katy Perry’s 2010 hit Firework, drawing swift backlash over the use of the song in a militaristic context. Perry publicly denounced the move, saying she did not approve it and that weaponizing her music to celebrate warfare contradicted the song’s message of hope and empowerment. She noted that the track was written as an anthem of resilience for personal struggle, not for promoting conflict, and pointed to the broader misalignment between the song’s meaning and the post. Perry’s objections come as she had sold the master recordings and publishing rights to several albums, including Teenage Dream, to Litmus Music in 2023, which complicates who could authorize future uses. The controversy fits a pattern of other artists, such as Ariana Grande, Sabrina Carpenter, Olivia Rodrigo, and Céline Dion, criticizing the White House for using their music without consent in political posts. The episode underscores ongoing tensions over the appropriation of popular music for state messaging and raises questions about consent, rights, and the boundaries of artistic endorsement.