When Children’s Characters Push Back – and a Pop Musician Draws a Line for the Government

The Trump administration has instrumentalized many things in recent months, but this time it took on two worlds that normally exist far from political noise: pop culture and childhood imagination. Yet the reactions were so clear that they could not be ignored, even in Washington. Sabrina Carpenter, one of today’s most successful pop stars, reacted with outrage when her song “Juno” appeared in a government clip that sought to heroically portray ICE raids. She wrote: This video is evil and disgusting. Do not ever involve me or my music to benefit your inhumane agenda. It was one of those statements in which not a single sentence is softened. A direct strike at a government that has been trying for months to use culture and entertainment as decorative cover for its hardline policies.

Only a few hours later, a second voice emerged, and the message was just as clear, but from a completely different direction. Kids Can Press, the publisher behind the beloved children’s character Franklin the Turtle, condemned a post by the Trump allied commentator Pete Hegseth. He had circulated a manipulated image showing Franklin aiming a bazooka at boats, a grotesque attempt to hijack a character that stands for friendship, conflict resolution, and childhood curiosity. The publisher wrote: We strongly condemn any denigrating, violent, or unauthorized use of Franklin’s name or image. These values contradict everything Franklin stands for.

See also our article: “Pentagon Pete and the Violated Turtle” – under the link: https://kaizen-blog.org/en/pentagon-pete-und-die-geschaendete-schildkroete/

The incident shows how deeply political staging has now penetrated. When a government begins inserting songs into propaganda videos without consent or twisting children’s book characters into violent fantasies, it crosses a line that artists and publishers will not accept in silence. Carpenter and the creators of Franklin made that clear: they do not want to be part of a project that celebrates harshness and diminishes humanity.

That the rejection comes from two such different directions, a globally successful musician and a long established children’s book publisher, says much about the mood in the country. Even those areas that should rise above politics are now resisting an appropriation that occurs more and more often without permission. And perhaps this clarity is the reason these reactions have drawn so much attention. This is not about partisan camps. It is about decency. And about boundaries that even a government must not cross.