White House Uses Sabrina Carpenter Clip for New ICE Video

Sabrina Carpenter found herself at the centre of another political controversy after the White House released a second video featuring the pop star’s image, this time using manipulated footage from her recent SNL appearance.

The new video, posted on Friday (as per Rolling Stone), opens with an altered clip from Carpenter’s SNL commercial sketch where she appears alongside cast member Marcello Hernández. The original audio has been deliberately changed, making it sound as though Carpenter calls Hernández “illegal” instead of “hot” as she actually said during the broadcast.

In the authentic SNL sketch, Carpenter delivered the line, “I think I might need to arrest someone for being too hot,” with Hernández responding, “Oh well, I turn myself in,” before putting his hands out as if ready to be handcuffed. The playful exchange references Carpenter’s tour performances where she would jokingly “arrest” audience members with fuzzy pink handcuffs during her rendition of “Juno”.

The manipulated White House version replaces Carpenter’s original dialogue before cutting to footage of alleged undocumented immigrants being pursued and arrested by ICE agents. The administration captioned the post: “PSA: If you’re a criminal illegal, you WILL be arrested & deported.”

This latest incident follows Carpenter’s fierce criticism of an earlier White House video that featured her song “Juno” from her Short n’ Sweet album. That initial video showed protestors opposing ICE raids before transitioning to a montage of enforcement actions. Carpenter responded directly to the post, writing, “This video is evil and disgusting. Do not ever involve me or my music to benefit your inhumane agenda.”

White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson fired back at Carpenter’s objections with a pointed statement: “Here’s a Short n’ Sweet message for Sabrina Carpenter: We won’t apologise for deporting dangerous criminal illegal murderers, rapists, and pedophiles from our country. Anyone who would defend these sick monsters must be stupid, or is it slow?”

The first video featuring “Juno” was subsequently removed from X, though a version remained available on TikTok at the time of reporting. Carpenter has not yet publicly addressed the latest manipulated SNL footage.