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Jack White has threatened to sue Donald Trump’s campaign over the use of his former rock duo The White Stripes’s hit “Seven Nation Army.”
On Thursday (August 29), the guitarist and singer shared a screen recording of a since-deleted clip posted to X by Trump’s deputy director of communications, Margo Martin, showing the former president boarding a flight to Michigan and Wisconsin.
The footage was overlayed with the 2003 song’s famous instrumental intro.
“Oh....Don’t even think about using my music you fascists,” White wrote in the caption of the Instagram post. “Lawsuit coming from my lawyers about this (to add to your 5 thousand others.) Have a great day at work today Margo Martin.”
He angrily continued: “And as long as I’m here, a double f*** 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.”
Trump recently visited Virginia’s Arlington National Cemetary for the third anniversary of the terror attack at the Abbey Gate at Kabul Airport, where 13 American servicemembers were killed.
While there, he laid a wreath on the grave of the fallen soldiers and posed for photos with some of the servicemembers’ relatives.
The images have been circulating on X, where the Republican nominee is facing backlash from constituents and fellow politicians for flashing a smile and a thumbs-up in the pictures.
The anti-Trump group The Lincoln Project called his behavior “disgraceful,” while former Republican congressman Adam Kinzinger, a lieutenant colonel in the Air National Guard, added: “Smiling thumbs up at the grave is unusual to say the least.”
White’s threat comes hours after Swedish group Abba demanded the Trump campaign immediately take down and remove footage from his recent rallies using their music.
“Together with the members of Abba, we have discovered that videos have been released where Abba’s music/videos has been used at Trump events,” a spokesperson for Universal Music shared in a statement to The Guardian, “and we have therefore requested that such use be immediately taken down and removed.”
They stated they had not received a request to use their music; therefore, “no permission or licence has been given to Trump.”
Both White and Abba join a growing list of artists demanding Trump stop using their music at his events. Earlier this month, he was sued for millions of dollars by the estate of the late singer-songwriter Isaac Hayes for allegedly using the song “Hold On, I’m Coming” at Republican rallies and in campaign videos without permission.
Beyoncé also threatened the Trump campaign with a cease-and-desist letter after he attempted to co-opt her 2016 song “Freedom,” which she’s reportedly granted the Kamala Harris campaign permission to use as their anthem through to the November election.
