Donald Trump’s spokesman Steven Cheung appeared to take a swipe at the Republicans’ Democratic rival in the 2024 election, Vice President Kamala Harris, by using her campaign song “Freedom” by Beyoncé in a social media post.
On Tuesday, Cheung shared a video on X (formerly Twitter) showing Trump getting off his plane in Michigan to attend a campaign rally with “Freedom” playing in the background. As Trump drove past a Secret Service van, he raised his fists in the air. Cheung captioned the post, “Touchdown in Michigan!!! @realDonaldTrump.”
https://twitter.com/TheStevenCheung/status/1825948172495237263
It is unclear whether the song was actually played at the crime scene or if the audio was added later by Cheung. Despite concerns raised in the comments about possible copyright infringement, the video remained online until Tuesday evening, when The Hollywood Reporter noted that the post removed from the platform.
The previous Wednesday, Rolling Stone had reported that Beyoncé’s team had threatened to send the Trump campaign a cease and desist letter for using the song, for which they allegedly did not receive permission.
When I was asked to comment on the video by The HillCheung replied: “Freedom, freedom!”
Neither Cheung nor Beyoncé’s representatives responded The Hollywood Reporterasked for a comment.
In July, Harris received quick approval from Beyoncé’s team to use “Freedom” from her 2016 album. lemonade as part of her presidential campaign. The song was featured in Harris’ campaign launch video and an ad with her running mate Tim Walz. In the ad, Jeffrey Wright says: “What kind of America do we want? One where we are divided, angry and depressed? Come on! We are Americans! Fascism? We conquered it. The moon? We landed on it. The future? We built it. Freedom? Nobody loves it more. And we fight for it.”
Trump, on the other hand, has been in legal trouble for using songs for his campaign without permission. Last week, the estate of Isaac Hayes sued him for 134 counts of copyright infringement after Trump played Sam & Dave’s “Hold on, I’m Coming,” which was written by the late musician, at a rally. After Trump also used Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On” at a rally in Montana, Dion’s team condemned the unauthorized use and questioned the song selection. It wrote: “… And really, The Song?”
Jackie Strause contributed to this story.
This story was originally published at 10:44 a.m. and was first updated on 1:54 p.m. to add report about Beyoncé’s team threatening to send a cease and desist letter.
