The estate of the late singer Prince has issued a reminder to President Donald Trump's campaign once again not to use Prince's music, a year after his campaign agreed to stop doing so.
In a tweet sent after the president played "Purple Rain" at his Minneapolis rally, Prince's estate said they had previously asked the campaign to stop playing Prince's songs and once again reiterated their request.
"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 Prince Estate will never give permission to President Trump to use Prince's songs," the tweet said.
It is not the first time such a message has been shared by the estate on social media, with an associate of Prince's, Jeremiah Freed, tweeting in 2018: "The Prince Estate has never given permission to President Trump or The White House to use Prince's songs and have requested that they cease all use immediately," in a message sent from the estate's account and retweeted by the late singer's brother, The Hill reported.
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 Prince Estate will never give permission to President Trump to use Prince’s songs. pic.twitter.com/FuMUPzSWOe
— Prince (@prince) October 11, 2019
Along with the tweet shared following the Minneapolis rally, the campaign also shared a 2018 letter from an attorney for Trump's campaign, stating that without admitting any liability in the matter, the campaign agreed not to use Prince's music in connection with any future events.
As well as the Prince estate, the Rolling Stones, Adele, Elton John, R.E.M, and Queen have all previously issued messages objecting to their songs being played at Trump rallies or by the Trump campaign.
Indeed, Queen said in a statement back in 2016 that they were "frustrated" by the Trump campaign's repeated use of their music, despite having requested that Trump stop playing 'We Are The Champions" at his rallies.
"We are frustrated by the repeated unauthorized use of the song after a previous request to desist, which has obviously been ignored by Mr. Trump and his campaign," a statement from the band said.
"Queen does not want its music associated with any mainstream or political debate in any country. Nor does Queen want 'We are the Champions' to be used as an endorsement of Mr. Trump and the political views of the Republican Party. We trust, hope and expect that Mr. Trump and his campaign will respect these wishes moving forward."
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to Newsweek's request for comment.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
