UPDATE (Aug. 21 @ 9:53 p.m. ET): The Donald Trump marketing campaign video that includes Beyoncé’s “Freedom” has been deleted from Trump marketing campaign spokesman Steven Cheung’s X account.
ORIGINAL STORY (Aug. 21 @ 7:55 p.m. ET): Beyoncé‘s document label and music writer have despatched a cease-and-desist to Donald Trump‘s presidential marketing campaign over its use of the megastar’s track “Freedom” in a social media video, Billboard has confirmed. The information was first reported by Rolling Stone.
Within the offending clip, which was posted to Trump marketing campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung‘s X account, “Freedom” performs over footage of the Republican presidential candidate stepping off a airplane. The video arrived lengthy after the track had develop into the official theme track for the marketing campaign of Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris and her working mate Tim Walz, with Vice President Harris taking part in the track at her first presidential marketing campaign rally earlier this summer season after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed her candidacy. The Harris-Walz marketing campaign’s use of the monitor, together with in a number of marketing campaign adverts and on the Democratic Nationwide Conference, has been carried out with Beyoncé’s permission.
As of this writing, the Trump video utilizing “Freedom” stays on Cheung’s X account.
That is removed from the primary time Trump has run afoul of an artist for utilizing their track at marketing campaign occasions and elsewhere with out permission. On Aug. 11, attorneys for the Isaac Hayes property filed a discover of copyright infringement and threatened additional authorized motion in opposition to the Trump marketing campaign over its use of Hayes’ “Maintain On, I’m Coming” at a number of Trump rallies with out authorization between 2022 and 2024. Different artists who’ve objected to Trump’s use of their songs through the years embody The Rolling Stones, Rihanna, Adele and Aerosmith‘s Steven Tyler.