If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump appears to have briefly abandoned his comic insults and instead cheekily taken pages from Vice President Kamala Harris’s playbook. In the midst of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, where Harris was officially nominated on Tuesday evening (Aug. 20) in a joyous and music-filled night that saw every state announce its support with a theme song supplied by DJ Cassidy, Trump’s campaign spokesman preempted the celebration with a brazen diatribe.
A 13-second video of Trump arriving in Detroit for a rally on Tuesday, posted by mouthpiece Steven Cheung hours before the second night of the DNC, shows the former reality TV star walking down the steps of his plane onto the tarmac while the soundtrack of Beyoncé’s “Freedom” plays. If you’ve been paying attention over the past month, then you surely know that the soaring song from Bey’s lemonade The album is the official theme song of the Harris campaign.
Harris took to the track at her official campaign kickoff on July 22, and Queen Bey gave the former senator and California attorney general her permission to use the song at her rallies. An a cappella version of the song served to kick off the DNC on Monday night, cementing its place as the official anthem of the Harris campaign.
At press time, neither the Trump campaign spokespeople nor Beyoncé had returned. BillboardPlease leave a comment.
The brazen move by Trump’s team came less than two weeks after Trump complained that Harris had copied his idea of not taxing tips, telling a crowd, “She just stole it.” The accusation of idea theft is far-fetched considering Trump has repeatedly gotten into trouble since moving from real estate and reality TV to politics eight years ago.
Since then, dozens of musicians and songwriters have objected to the twice-impeached former president’s use of their songs at political rallies, including the Rolling Stones, Adele, Rihanna and the estate of Sinead O’Connor, to name a few. While some have publicly objected and others have sent cease-and-desist orders after saying they wanted no connection to the Trump campaign, the estate of Isaac Hayes said in July that it would take legal action against Trump for playing “Hold On, I’m Coming,” co-written by Hayes, at the end of his rallies.
As reported by BillboardWhen it comes to objections from artists and songwriters, the protest process is fairly straightforward. Collective bargaining organizations BMI and ASCAP require political campaigns to purchase licenses to use songs in their catalogs, with the license containing a caveat allowing songwriters to object to use in a political campaign. However, that doesn’t stop a campaign from playing a song at a rally or, in this case, in a promotional video.
However, a lawyer for Jackson Browne, who sued the late Republican senator and presidential candidate John McCain over the use of his song “Running on Empty” in a 2008 commercial, said, “Most political campaigns are not interested in simply removing the song.” Trump has been particularly brazen in this regard, and at press time it was unclear whether the clip of “Freedom” falls under the fair use provision, which does not require a license at all.
Either way, the hijacking of a rival campaign’s official song clearly seems typical of the Trump campaign’s “asking for forgiveness, not permission” political battle strategy. It remains to be seen whether Beyoncé or her team will take steps to have X’s video removed. At press time, it did not appear that Beyoncé had responded to the Trump video on her social media.
Watch Trump’s campaign video below.
