Some of music's biggest stars are trying to put Donald Trump’s White House bid on mute, pushing back on the use of their songs at the former president’s campaign rallies.
In just the last month, several high-profile performers — including Jack White of The White Stripes, Foo Fighters, ABBA and Celine Dion — have turned the volume up in their criticism of Trump for blasting out some of their most famous tunes at his political events and using their work in videos promoting his presidential run.
In a blistering Instagram post this week, White called out Margo Martin, Trump’s deputy director of communications, for sharing a clip of the 45th president on his way to a pair of campaign rallies as The White Stripes’ 2003 hit, “Seven Nation Army,” played in the background.
“Oh….Don’t even think about using my music you fascists,” White wrote.
“Law suit coming from my lawyers about this (to add to your five thousand others),” the musician said.
White's legal threat came just weeks after the family of late soul singer Isaac Hayes filed a lawsuit against Trump's campaign. The $3 million suit alleged copyright infringement over the use of the 1966 Sam & Dave song he co-wrote, “Hold On, I'm Coming” at Trump's rallies, going back two years.
In a Thursday message on social platform X, the entertainer's son, Isaac Hayes III, said the family is looking “forward to our day in court.”
Foo Fighters attempted to fight back against Trump playing their song, “My Hero,” at a recent Arizona campaign gathering by beating the fundraising drum for his political opponent.
A Foo Fighters spokesperson told ITK last week that any royalties the band earned from the song would be donated to Vice President Harris’s campaign.
A Trump spokesperson told The Hill that the campaign obtained “a license to play the song.”
Asked about the rising number of performers who have recently sounded off about the use of their music, Trump communications director Steven Cheung appeared to draw from Foo Fighters' lyrics in a statement to ITK.
“It's times like these you learn that it's all about money, money, money and not about freedom with these artists,” Cheung said. “But the nation will go on and President Trump will take back the White House to Save America.”
When it comes to playing songs at political rallies, there are two rights that are implicated, according to Kenneth Freundlich, a Los Angeles-based entertainment attorney and copyright expert: the musical composition and the recording of the song.
“The way I like to say it is: Irving Berlin wrote ‘White Christmas,’ but Bing Crosby recorded it. So there's Irving Berlin you got to get a right from, and Bing Crosby you got to get a right from,” Freundlich explained.
“You don't need to get the right from anybody to play the recording at a rally – just play it. But on the song side, they have what's called a blanket license, which the campaigns generally get from the performing rights societies, such as ASCAP and BMI,” the Freundlich Law litigator said, referring to the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers and Broadcast Music Inc.
The number of voices speaking out against Trump's use of their music has only gotten louder in recent weeks.
In early August, Celine Dion put some distance between herself and Trump's campaign after her smash hit, “My Heart Will Go On,” was played at the 45th president's rally in Montana.
“In no way is this use authorized and Celine Dion does not endorse this or any similar use… and really, THAT song” a statement posted on Dion’s Instagram account said about the song, featured in the 1997 blockbuster “Titanic.”
Swedish pop group ABBA also voiced its objections to Trump's campaign reportedly playing “The Winner Takes It All” at a Minnesota rally earlier this summer.
“ABBA has recently discovered the unauthorized use of their music and videos at a Trump event through videos that appeared online,” according to a statement this week from the band to The Associated Press, adding that they had “requested the removal and deletion of such content.”
A Trump campaign spokesperson told The Associated Press that it had “a license to play ABBA music through our agreement with BMI and ASCAP.”
“The wrinkle is that if the artist writes to the foreign rights society that says, ‘We don't want this song to be used politically,’ then the campaign doesn't have the right to use it politically,” Freundlich said. But typically that doesn't happen until after a music star's songs have already been played at a political event.
When asked why Trump's camp might continue to play songs by popular artists only to be publicly and repeatedly rebuffed, George Washington University associate professor of digital storytelling Imani Cheers said music has a “really amazing way of setting a tone.”
“One thing that the Trump campaign is trying to capitalize on is really revving up the enthusiasm and the energy at his rallies,” she said.
During his 2016 and 2020 presidential bids, Trump was “able to rely on his bravado” and personality to draw in crowds, Cheers said. The 2024 version of Trump, Cheers suggested, might increasingly need to rely on a soundtrack to get his crowds “pumped up, and excited and engaged.”
With much of Hollywood — including its singers and musicians — leaning to the left, there haven't been any public complaints from artists about Harris utilizing music at campaign events. In July, Beyoncé reportedly gave Harris's team permission to use her song, “Freedom,” on the campaign trail. Harris's campaign played the song at several campaign stops and featured it in her first ad.
Trump's campaign does strike a chord with some notable names in music. Country singer Jason Aldean sat next to the former commander in chief at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee earlier this summer, and Kid Rock took to the stage at the same event after praising Trump as an “American bada‑‑ president.”
But Trump's critics in the music world, Cheers said, “have the right, just like anyone else, to have their likeness used where they deem appropriate” and to speak out “if it is being used in a space that does not adhere to their morals and their values.”
While there may be lots of talk of legal action, Freundlich said some artists and lawyers might be deterred by the amount of time such suits typically take the play out — there would almost certainly be a new president before any major movement in a case.
“It's not the kind of lawsuit that most [artists] will file because it's going to end up going nowhere fast, and by the time it comes to any kind of resolution, you're years ahead of the game,” Freundlich said.
“What usually happens is people just go public, and most of the time, once they go public, the campaign stops using it,” he said, noting that there are some exceptions. In 2009, Don Henley sued then-California Senate candidate Chuck DeVore (R) for using his songs, “The Boys of Summer” and “All She Wants to Do Is Dance,” in a video posted on YouTube. A settlement was reached, and DeVore issued an apology to Henley in 2010.
For now, an increasing number of musicians seem to be singing the same tune in their opposition to Trump stepping out to their songs. It's a pattern that Freundlich, a seasoned attorney, appears somewhat mystified by.
“Frankly, at the end of the day, it really doesn't make the Trump campaign look good that they're using all these songs, and then people are coming out and saying, ‘You can't use it,’” Freundlich said.
“It's kind of a silly strategy, if you ask me.”
