United States military used Metallica's Enter Sandman without permission in now deleted video promoting war drones

The United States government had to delete a video from X (formerly Twitter) after it used Metallica's Enter Sandman without permission.

Donald Trump's Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, posted a clip on X promoting the country's new approach to building military drones. In the clip, Hegseth was shown signing an order to cut "bureaucratic red tape" while the iconic metal band's massive hit song played in the background.

But it didn't take long for Metallica's lawyers to have the video removed. It was later replaced with an identical clip, with the Metallica track removed.

A spokesperson for the US Department of Defense (DoD) said: "This afternoon, representatives from X reached out to DoD regarding a video posted to our social media page and asked that the video be removed due to a copyright issue with the song Enter Sandman by Metallica. The video has been taken down, corrected, and re-uploaded to our page."

Representatives of Metallica confirmed to Rolling Stone that the track had been used without the band's consent.

Metallica are currently on tour in North America and recently announced a run of UK and Europe dates for 2026.

Metallica 2026 European tour dates

May 09: Athens Olympic Stadium, Greece*
May 13: Bucharest Arena Națională, Romania
May 19: Chorzów Stadion Śląski, Poland
May 22: Frankfurt Deutsche Bank Park, Germany*
May 24: Frankfurt Deutsche Bank Park, Germany+
May 27: Zurich Stadion Letzigrund, Switzerland*
May 30: Berlin Olympiastadion, Germany*
Jun 03: Bologna Stadio Renato Dall’Ara, Italy*
Jun 11: Budapest Puskas Arena, Hungary+
Jun 13: Budapest Puskas Arena, Hungary*
Jun 19: Dublin Aviva Stadium, Ireland+
Jun 21: Dublin Aviva Stadium, Ireland*
Jun 25: Glasgow Hampden Park, UK*
Jun 28: Cardiff Principality Stadium, UK*
Jul 03: London Stadium, UK*
Jul 05: London Stadium, UK+

* Gojira and Knocked Loose support
+ Pantera and Avatar support