Taylor Swift's song "August" has been removed from a Team Trump TikTok video, replaced by a copyright notice, days after the account posted the clip.

The Team Trump TikTok account — created during the 2024 presidential campaign — uploaded a video of Donald and Melania Trump watching fireworks, with Swift's "August" as the soundtrack. The post was captioned: "I'm sure @Taylor Swift is going to be super excited we used her song! #taylorswift #maga #august" (Rolling Stone).

By the following Friday, U.S. TikTok users noticed the audio was gone. The video now displays the message: "The copyright owner hasn't made this sound available in your country" (Rolling Stone). Variety confirmed the removal on X (Variety), and Just Jared also reported the takedown on 8 August 2026 (Just Jared). The Mirror noted that other Swift tracks remained available on the account — only "August" was pulled (The Mirror).

Swift has not publicly commented on the removal. Neither has the Team Trump account explained the takedown or acknowledged the copyright notice now displayed on the post.

The mechanics behind the removal are straightforward. When a rights holder — in this case, Swift's label or publishing representatives — flags unauthorised use of a sound on TikTok, the platform can pull the audio from the specific video while leaving the clip itself online. TikTok's copyright system operates on a complaint-driven basis: the rights holder submits a takedown request, and the platform restricts the sound, sometimes only in certain regions.

This is not the first time Swift's music has been caught in a TikTok licensing dispute. In February 2024, songs by Swift, Bad Bunny, Drake, Billie Eilish and other Universal Music Group artists vanished from the platform entirely after a licensing deal between UMG and TikTok expired (AP). That was a broad contractual gap, not a targeted takedown. The two sides reached a new agreement in May 2024, and UMG artists returned to the app (AP).

The "August" removal is different in scope. It affects a single video on a single account, not a platform-wide catalogue. But the result is the same from the viewer's perspective: the sound is gone, and a copyright notice stands where the music used to be.

For Swift, who publicly endorsed Kamala Harris in the 2024 election, the caption's sarcastic tone — "I'm sure @Taylor Swift is going to be super excited" — was unlikely to land well. The rights-holder takedown speaks louder than any statement.