Can Donald Trump keep using songs against a musician's wishes?

He's at it again.

Earlier this week, Donald Trump added another name to his long 'Musicians I Have Angered’ list by playing yet another song at a rally without first seeking permission. This time, it was Rufus Wainwright’s cover of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah, which the presidential candidate played at an town hall event in Pennsylvania.

Wainwright - who is supporting Kamala Harris - took to Instagram with a statement claiming he was "mortified" to be associated with Trump. "The song ‘Hallelujah’ by Leonard Cohen has become an anthem dedicated to peace, love and acceptance of the truth," he wrote. "I’ve been supremely honored over the years to be connected with this ode to tolerance. Witnessing Trump and his supporters commune with this music last night was the height of blasphemy." It seemed especially short-sighted of Trump’s team, particularly considering Wainwright has referred specifically to the Republican candidate while performing his own protest song Going to a Town live over the years (with its lyric "I’m so tired of you, America.")

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Cohen’s estate, meanwhile, issued a cease-and-desist letter to Trump’s campaign in a bid to stop him using the song, having previously denied the Republican National Convention permission to play it in 2020. Back then, a spokesperson for Cohen’s estate issued a statement saying: "We are surprised and dismayed that the RNC would proceed knowing that the Cohen Estate had specifically declined the RNC’s use request, and their rather brazen attempt to politicize and exploit in such an egregious manner ‘Hallelujah’, one of the most important songs in the Cohen song catalog."

Trump’s team will no doubt add it to the ever-growing pile of similar letters that he has amassed over the years. Wainwright is not the first artist to be aggrieved by Trump, nor will he be the last. Over the years, the polarising political candidate has annoyed a multitude of musicians and songwriters - so much so, that there is now a separate Wikipedia page for ‘Musicians who oppose Donald Trump's use of their music’. Other members of that reluctant club include Bruce Springsteen (who argued that Trump "doesn't have a grasp of the deep meaning of what it means to be an American" after he co-opted his song Born in the USA), Guns ‘N’ Roses (who claimed "the Trump campaign is using loopholes in the various venues' blanket performance licenses which were not intended for such craven political purposes, without the songwriters’ consent" by using November Rain, and The White Stripes (who opposed the use of Seven Nation Army, with Jack White saying: "Don’t even think about using my music you fascists. Lawsuit coming from my lawyers about this (to add to your 5 thousand others)".)

Trump Campaign Asserts Right to Use Foo Fighters' 'My Hero’ at Rally

"It’s Times Like These facts matter, don’t be a Pretender," wrote a Trump spokesperson:https://t.co/CC9UgNJjVn pic.twitter.com/mCpdCW75yl

— Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) August 26, 2024

Johnny Marr was somewhat more to-the-point when he heard that Trump has used The Smiths’ song Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want at a rally a few months ago; the guitarist simply said: "I never in a million years would've thought this could come to pass. Consider this s**t shut right down right now." Michael Stipe was similarly blunt after Trump had used R.E.M.’s It’s the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) at a rally in 2015, saying "Do not use our music or my voice for your moronic charade of a campaign."

The problem is, there is little that artists can do about it apart from issuing cease-and-desist letters and pursuing a ‘copyright infringement’ legal battle. Neil Young is one artist who took such an approach after Trump repeatedly used his Rockin’ in the Free World at rallies. Although Young eventually did sue Trump for copyright infringement in 2020 (which was quietly settled out of court, according to reports), he had repeatedly spoken about his unhappiness - and helplessness - about the song being used in a way he disapproved of. "Every time 'Rockin’ in the Free World' or one of my songs is played at your rallies, I hope you hear my voice," he wrote in an open letter to Trump. "Remember it is the voice of a tax-paying US citizen who does not support you. Me."

There have been countless others. Pavarotti’s estate objected to his use of the Italian tenor’s version of Nessun Dorma by pointing out how Trump’s immigration policies directly contravened Pavarotti’s work in support of refugees and immigrants. Ozzy Osbourne slammed him for using his song Crazy Train in a video mocking the Democratic campaign. There’s Beyoncé. Foo Fighters, Phil Collins. Celine Dion. Prince. ABBA. Like Young, The Rolling Stones recently threatened to escalate their legal action, having previously issued a cease-and-desist letter back in 2016 for Trump’s use of You Can’t Always Get What You Want.

Even one of our own - the late, great Sinéad O’Connor - has been unwittingly pulled into the conversation after her defining take on Prince’s Nothing Compares 2 U was used at an event in Maryland earlier this year. Her estate and her label promptly issued a joint statement that read: "Throughout her life, it is well known that Sinéad O'Connor lived by a fierce moral code defined by honesty, kindness, fairness, and decency towards her fellow human beings….it is no exaggeration to say that Sinéad would have been disgusted, hurt, and insulted to have her work misrepresented in this way by someone who she herself referred to as a 'biblical devil'."

We're still here and so is most of the crowd. A question has not been asked in more than a half hour.

Now Trump is notably playing a music video of Sinead O’Connor’s "Nothing Compares to you." O’Connor’s estate asked Trump to stop playing her music at his rallies. She once… pic.twitter.com/WtVn3grFHP

— Bryan Llenas (@BryanLlenas) October 15, 2024

As if to prove a point at that town hall event in Pennsylvania earlier this week, Trump doubled down on his detractors by essentially playing a 40-minute compilation of the bands and artists who have forbidden him from using their music. Sinead, Guns N’ Roses, Pavarotti, Rufus Wainwright - they were all in there, on what he referred to as "my all-time favourite chart". It was trolling on a grand scale - and in a way, you wouldn’t expect anything less.

There is always a place for politics in music - look at the great protest songs down through the ages, from Bob Dylan’s Blowin’ in the Wind, to Public Enemy’s Fight the Power, to U2’s Sunday Bloody Sunday, to Sex Pistols’ God Save the Queen. All stellar songs, but none of them, mind you, have ever been played at a Trump rally. And of course, you may be wondering whether there are any artists who are happy to have their music used by Trump, and yes, there are: his supporters include Kid Rock, Kanye West, Billy Ray Cyrus and Azealia Banks.

They say that you can tell a lot about someone by their taste in music. As the great Bill O’Herlihy was fond of saying, we’ll leave it there, so.