The White House has been condemned by the singer Jess Glynne and the airline Jet2 after using a viral holiday advert meme to promote immigration enforcement. The official White House account posted a clip on X on Wednesday showing people in handcuffs being taken onto planes, with the caption: “When Ice books you a one-way Jet2 holiday to deportation. Nothing beats it!”
The post accompanied footage of the recently appointed UK minister for safeguarding and violence against women and girls, Jess Phillips, who is not related to the singer. However, the singer Jess Glynne responded with anger, saying she felt “sick” that her 2015 song Hold My Hand, which features in the original advert, was being used to spread “division and hate”. She later told the Guardian: “I’m devastated to see my song used in this way. Hold My Hand was written about love, support, and standing by someone through everything.”
Jet2 also distanced itself from the post, with a spokesperson saying: “We are disappointed to see our brand being used to promote government policy such as this.” The voiceover actor Zoë Lister, whose deadpan delivery helped make the advert a summer meme, told the BBC she would never condone her voice being used “in promotion with Trump and his abhorrent policies”. The original advert, featuring scenes of rainy holidays and water-slide mishaps, had previously been embraced by Jet2, which launched a competition offering a £1,000 holiday voucher.
The White House post is the latest example of its unconventional social media strategy. In February, it posted a fake Time magazine cover of President Donald Trump as a king to promote the scrapping of congestion pricing in New York, drawing criticism from the state’s Democratic governor, Kathy Hochul. The administration has also shared AI-generated images, including one showing Trump in a transformed Gaza, and recently defended its posts by saying: “Nowhere in the constitution does it say we can’t post banger memes.”
Trump has overseen a sweeping expansion of immigration enforcement since taking office, with record numbers of arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in June. Human rights experts have raised concerns about the treatment of detainees, including children, after two men died in federal custody last month.
