A campaign video posted on Twitter by President Donald Trump last week featuring the popular Queen song “We Will Rock You” was removed after the band’s publisher made a copyright complaint over its use.
The video, which was posted last Wednesday, showed Trump giving various speeches at campaign rallies, according to Buzzfeed. The visuals were accompanied by the song “We Will Rock You” in its entirety.
Shortly after the president posted the clip, a Queen representative told the news publication that the president was unauthorized to use the song and confirmed that they had “already entered into a process to call for non use of Queen song copyrights by the Trump campaign.”
“This is ongoing,” the representative added.
Newsweek can confirm that the video had been disabled as of Sunday; now the text in the Trump tweet said: “This video has been removed in response to a report by the copyright holder.”
The video has already been retweeted 18,000 times and liked by more than 58,000 users. At the time of it’s removal, it had been viewed over 1.7 million times, according to Buzzfeed, after also reporting that a Queen representative had confirmed that the removal was pushed through by the band’s music publisher.
Trump and his campaign have been called out numerous times during his presidency for using music and slogans by various artists and content creators without permission. Earlier this month, the president tweeted a short clip of Nickelback’s song “Photograph,” with a photo of former Vice President Joe Biden and son Hunter Biden doctored into the visuals. The post was later removed by Twitter due to a copyright complaint.
In a statement, a Twitter spokesperson confirmed the removal and said the company responded “to valid copyright complaints sent to us by a copyright owner or their authorized representatives.”
The estate of the late singer Prince condemned Trump on Thursday for playing “Purple Rain” at his Minneapolis rally without permission. “President Trump played Prince’s “Purple Rain” tonight at a campaign event in Minneapolis despite confirming a year ago that the campaign would not use Prince’s music,” the official Prince Twitter page wrote. “The Prince Estate will never give permission to President Trump to use Prince’s songs.”
Last November, HBO rebuked Trump for stealing the Game of Thrones trademark in a tweet where the president announced incoming sanctions against Iran. The image, shared by Trump on November 3, included the text “Sanctions Are Coming. November 5” in the Game of Thrones font, imposed over an image of the president. It played off the show’s longtime slogan, “Winter Is Coming.”
