The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Tuesday targeted singer Zach Bryan after he attacked ICE and President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration. The weapon of choice? One of the country icon’s own songs was used to accompany a recruitment video.
As Breitbart News reported, Bryan, 29, shared an early recording of a new song on Instagram with the brief snippet including lyrics that targeted ICE raids as somehow representing the death of a nation.
Homeland Security officials have now issued a searing troll in a response of their own.
In the clip, posted to X, the DHS uses the song “Revival” to accompany footage of Border Patrol and ICE agents doing their job and rounding up detainees.
The DHS wrote, “We’re having an All Night Revival” in the clip.
The video compilation shows ICE officials descending on communities and emerging with handcuffed individuals seemingly being led to detention centers or parked vans.
Images of people in gas masks flash across the screen as Bryan’s song plays in the background, with the lyrics: “Lord, forgive us, my boys and me/We’re havin’ an all-night revival/Someone call the women and someone steal the Bible/For the sake of my survival/Baptize me in a bottle of Beam, put Johnny on the vinyl.”
This is the latest in a back-and-forth that started when the country singer released the new song along with the despairing message, “the fading of the red white and blue.”
The Grammy-winning artist’s song struck a nerve with Republicans pushing back against his condemnation of ICE agents deployed under the Trump administration to deport undocumented immigrants.
“No name Country artist Zach Bryan, slams ICE for deporting criminal illegal immigrants. It’s a stretch calling him an ‘artist’ because he has no talent!” was one response on X.
Others were quick to join in.
Another amplified the DHS message, adding: “Looks like someone doesn’t want a career in country music, anymore. Y’all know what to do.”
Bryan released his song snippet just days after setting a record for the highest-attended ticketed concert in U.S. history, with 112,408 fans gathering to watch him perform at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, as TIME reports.
When asked for a response to the song by TIME, Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said: “Stick to Pink Skies, dude,” referring to one of Bryan’s hits.
Bryan, a Navy veteran, was born on a U.S. military base in Japan.
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