2025 backlash over an ICE lyric in the unreleased song Bad News, including White House and DHS statements
Billboard, NBC News and Axios coverage of an October 2025 Instagram snippet of Zach Bryan's unreleased song Bad News, with the line ICE is gonna come bust down your door. Some fans, the White House and DHS officials criticized it. Bryan said the song is about loving the country and urged people not to use it as a weapon. Reported language only.
Editorial timeline of public reporting, not a legal finding.
- Song snippet with an ICE line posted on Instagram - Billboard reported that Bryan posted a clip of an unreleased song on Instagram with the line ICE is gonna come bust down your door, captioned The fading of the red white and blue. Axios said he had shared an acoustic snippet of the song on July 12 without backlash. White House Responds to Zach Bryan's Lyrics Criticizing ICE: 'Americans Disagree With Him'
- White House and DHS statements - Billboard and Newsweek reported that White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson, punning on Bryan's song titles, said most Americans disagree with him and support the great American Revival of @realdonaldtrump. DHS official Tricia McLaughlin told Billboard: Stick to Pink Skies, dude. White House Responds to Zach Bryan's Lyrics Criticizing ICE: 'Americans Disagree With Him'
- Kristi Noem criticism and DHS video - Axios and NBC News reported that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told commentator Benny Johnson the song was completely disrespectful to law enforcement and the country. Axios said DHS posted an ICE raid montage on X set to Bryan's song Revival. DHS escalates fight over Zach Bryan's controversial ICE lyric
- Bryan replies: the song is about loving the country - NBC News, Axios and ABC News reported that Bryan said in Instagram Stories he wrote the song months earlier and that it is about how much he loves the country and everyone in it. He said anyone using it as a weapon was proving how divided people are, and called himself neither left wing nor right wing. Zach Bryan responds to backlash over song 'Bad News' amid claims it's anti-ICE