The writer of a song played at Donald Trump’s rally in Ohio last week, which sounded similar to a QAnon theme, has objected to the use of his creation by the former president.
The song that played on Saturday as Mr Trump appeared in Youngstown, Ohio has already garnered much attention for its similarities with the QAnon’s unofficial theme “Wwg1wga”, which stands for the QAnon slogan “Where we go one, we go all”.
The former president’s aides were quick to deny the song that played at the rally was the QAnon theme and said it was a royalty-free track called “Mirrors” written by composer Will Van De Crommert.
Now it turns out that Mr Van De Crommert is unhappy with the use of his music at the rally and wants to distance himself from the campaign and the conspiracy theorist group.
The song “Wwg1wga” is credited to an artist who goes by the name Richard Feelgood. In a statement to Newsweek, Mr Van De Crommert said he has nothing to do with QAnon, Mr Feelgood and Mr Trump.
He accused Mr Feelgood of “unlawfully” distributing his music.
“I do not align with the views of QAnon, and this individual [Feelgood] has unlawfully distributed my music under their own name,” he was quoted by the outlet as saying.
The writer also emphasised he was not happy with the use of “Mirrors” at Mr Trump’s rally or the comparisons with QAnon and does not want any association with such beliefs.
While Mr Feelgood’s song came out in 2020, “Mirrors” was uploaded on Mr Can De Crommert on his SoundCloud profile in 2019.
“Richard Feelgood’s claim on the song ‘Mirrors’ (retitled ‘Wwg1wga’) is patently false,” Mr Van De Crommert said.
“The recordings of ‘Wwg1wga’ and ‘Mirrors’ are identical, and the master was unlawfully retitled, repackaged, and redistributed to streaming platforms by Richard Feelgood,” he told the outlet.
Mr Trump was at a rally in Youngstown, Ohio to support Republican senate nominee JD Vance when the song was played.
Apart from the song, the event also made headlines for an index finger salute made by dozens of Mr Trump’s supporters, drawing comparisons to gestures seen at an evangelical conference and even with the Nazi sieg heil salute.
Some, however, said it was simply a reference to Mr Trump’s “America First” slogan.
