Sabrina Carpenter and Franklin the Turtle in tiff with Trump administration over use of work

A young turtle from a Canadian children's book series is caught in an international feud after the US Defence Department used the character in a cartoon about killing alleged drug traffickers.

The publisher of "Franklin the Turtle" books is criticising Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth for a social media post depicting the beloved children's character shooting the alleged criminals.

"We strongly condemn any denigrating, violent, or unauthorized use of Franklin's name or image", publisher Kids Can Press said.

The publisher is not alone. Sabrina Carpenter lashed out at the White House on Tuesday for using her song in a video about deporting migrants, saying it was "evil and disgusting".

"Do not ever involve me or my music to benefit your inhumane agenda," the singer posted.

The White House used the pop star's music in a 1 December social media post showing a compilation of ICE operations and captioned it was a lyric from her song Juno.

In Franklin's case, the cartoon posted by Hegseth on social media is a mock book cover depicting Franklin in a military helicopter firing a large weapon at alleged drug boats. The faux title reads: "Franklin Targets Narco Terrorists."