Turns out Jack White wasn’t bluffing when he threatened legal action against Donald Trump for using his music the other week. He’s now filed a copyright infringement lawsuit, alongside ex-bandmate Meg White, against Trump for his use of Seven Nation Army in a recent campaign video.
The suit alleges that the Trump campaign engaged in “flagrant misappropriation” of the song when they used its “highly-distinctive and immediately recognizable introductory riff” as the soundtrack to a video which showed Trump boarding a plane to the crucial swing states of Michigan and Wisconsin. The complaint also alleges that the Trump’s team shared the video on social media in an attempt to infuse his campaign with “energy” and “excitement”.
According to White’s complaint Seven Nation Army is “among the most well-known and influential musical works of all time.” They allege Trump and his campaign tried to use the song to “burnish” his public image and “generate financial and other support for his campaign and candidacy on the backs of plaintiffs, whose permission and endorsement he neither sought nor obtained in violation of their rights under federal copyright law.”
Trump, his campaign, and his spokesperson Margo Martin are listed as defendants in the action, which is seeking “significant monetary damages.”
Showing the world exactly how he feels, White shared the news of the lawsuit on an Instagram post, which said “This machine sues fascists”, a nod, of course, to the famous slogan that Woody Guthrie wrote on his guitar during the 1930s: ‘This machine kills fascists’.
A huge number of artists have voiced their displeasure at Trump using their music for his presidential campaign – there is even a Wikipedia page devoted to what is now a huge list. Fewer though have actually taken steps to prevent the orange one from doing so. But White now joins Neil Young (who stopped Trump from using Rockin’ In The Free World in 2020) and estate of Isaac Hayes in actually taking legal action. Last week a federal judge granted a temporary injunction to the Hayes estate to prevent Trump from using Hold On I’m Comin’ at his campaign rallies.
White first warned Trump of this action last month when in an Instagram post, he wrote: “Law suit coming from my lawyers about this (to add to your 5 thousand others). And as long as I’m here, a double fuck you DonOLD for insulting our nation’s veterans at Arlington you scum. You should lose every military family’s vote immediately from that if ANYTHING makes sense anymore.”
