Radiohead wants no part of ICE’s social media promotion efforts.
The iconic Grammy-winning British band made its point very clear in a statement issued to NBC News on Friday, after the agency posted a video to Instagram to defend Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. “We demand that the amateurs in control of the ICE social media account take it down. 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.”
Radiohead is made up of members Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood, Colin Greenwood, Philip Selway, and Ed O’Brien.
Trump’s sweeping detain and deport measures have resulted in the public shooting deaths of two American citizens. The video posted to the agency’s Instagram profile earlier this month frames the crackdown as a protective measure for “American families.” The video, a montage of alleged crime victims, is captioned, “Thousands of American families have been torn apart because of criminal illegal alien violence,” set to Radiohead’s “Let Down.”
The caption continues, “American citizens raped and murdered by those who have no right to be in our country. This is who we fight for. This is our why.”
Radiohead was not moved by the administration’s messaging, as they concluded their statement, “Also, go f--- yourselves.”
Members of the band have made their feelings known about Trump before.
Earlier this month, Radiohead guitarist Johnny Greenwood and Paul Thomas Anderson issued a statement demanding answers from the filmmakers behind Melania after a piece of music from their 2017 film Phantom Thread appeared in the first lady’s documentary without their permission.
“It has come to our attention that a piece of music from Phantom Thread has been used in the Melania documentary,” they said in a joint statement. “While Jonny Greenwood does not own the copyright in the score, Universal failed to consult Jonny on this third-party use, which is a breach of his composer agreement. As a result, Jonny and Paul Thomas Anderson have asked for it to be removed from the documentary.” Producer Marc Beckman insisted they licensed the music, however, and vowed that the film’s music would remain as is.
Yorke has been even more vocal in his opposition to the administration.
In 2016, Yorke quoted Radiohead’s song “Burn the Witch” in a post to X (then Twitter) after Trump’s election, which was widely interpreted as a critical statement about the outcome. The following year, Yorke declared Trump a “f---ing clown” when he pulled the U.S. out of the climate accord.
Yorke continued to call Trump out in the years that followed, including in 2020, when he declared, again via Twitter, “i don’t want my kids inheriting a world run by flag waving facebook tin pot dictators, utterly bereft of moral authority, while they watch 200 mile winds pick up and blow their lives away like the Wizard of Oz, having internalized this force fed sense of powerlessness. just sayin.”
