If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump appears to have briefly ditched his insult comic schtick and flipped to cheekily borrowing pages from Vice President Kamala Harris’ playbook. In the midst of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago that on Tuesday night (August 20) officially nominated Harris in a joy- and music-filled night that featured each state announcing their support with a theme song provided by DJ Cassidy, Trump’s campaign spokesperson pre-empted the celebration with a brazen lift.
A 13-second video of Trump’s arrival in Detroit for a rally on Tuesday posted by mouthpiece Steven Cheung hours before night two of the DNC featured the former reality TV star walking down the steps of his plane onto the tarmac soundtracked by Beyoncé‘s “Freedom.” If you’ve been paying attention over the past month, then surely you know that the soaring song from Bey’s Lemonade album is the official Harris campaign theme song.
Harris walked out to the track at her official campaign kick-off on July 22 and Queen Bey gave the former Senator and California Attorney General her blessing to use the song at her rallies. An a cappella version of the tune helped kick-off the DNC on Monday night, further cementing its spot as the official anthem of the Harris campaign.
At press time spokespeople for the Trump campaign and Beyoncé had not returned Billboard‘s request for comment.
The brazen move from Trump’s team comes less than two weeks after Trump complained that Harris was copying his idea to not tax tips, telling a crowd “she just stole it.” The idea theft accusation is rich considering Trump has landed in hot water repeatedly since he pivoted 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 using their songs at political rallies, including the Rolling Stones, Adele, Rihanna and the Sinead O’Connor estate, among many others. While a number have publicly objected and some have sent cease-and-desist orders after saying they want no connection to the Trump campaign, in July the estate of Isaac Hayes said it was taking legal action against Trump for playing the Hayes co-written “Hold On, I’m Coming” to close his rallies.
As reported by Billboard, when it comes to objections from artists and songwriters, the process of protest is pretty straightforward. The performing rights organizations BMI and ASCAP require political campaigns to obtain licenses to use songs in their catalogs, with a caveat in the license that allows songwriters to object to usage in a political campaign. However, that does not prevent a campaign from playing a song at a rally, or in this case, in a promotional video.
That said, a lawyer for Jackson Browne — who sued late Republican Sen. and presidential aspirant John McCain for using his song “Running on Empty” in a 2008 commercial — said “most political campaigns aren’t keen about just taking the song down.” Trump has been especially brazen in this regard and it was unclear at press time if the clip featuring “Freedom” could fall under the fair use provision, which doesn’t require a license at all.
Either way, hijacking a rival campaign’s official song seems decidedly on-brand for the Trump campaign’s “ask for forgiveness, not permission” approach to political combat and it remains to be seen if Beyoncé, or her team, will take action to get the video removed from X. At press time it did not appear that Beyoncé had responded to the Trump video on her socials.
Check out the Trump campaign video below.
