All the Musicians Who Have Told Donald Trump to Stop Using Their Music (This Term)

If all the musicians who have told Donald Trump to stop playing their music or never start playing their music got together for a music festival, you’d have an incredibly long event, with a Hall of Fame-worthy lineup. Since Trump began his political career in earnest, he’s been told off, sued, insulted, or some combination of the sort by legends like Elton John, the Rolling Stones, Neil Young, Rihanna, Pharrell Williams, and Phil Collins. Hell, even Nickelback hit him with a copyright claim in 2019 over using “Photograph” in a social media video.

Let that sink in: Nickelback.

Linda Ronstadt, whose songs Trump hasn’t used, got a knock in back in September 2024 when the then-candidate made a stop to a venue named after her in her native Arizona.

“Since the building has my name on it, I need to say something,” she wrote on Instagram. “It saddens me to see the former President bring his hate show to Tucson, a town with deep Mexican-American roots and a joyful, tolerant spirit.” She detailed her objections to his “toxic politics,” sexism, and more, but said that most important to her was his dismantling of migrant families. “Trump first ran for President warning about rapists coming in from Mexico. I’m worried about keeping the rapist out of the White House,” she wrote.

The guy has a deep bench of musicians who can’t stand his guts, is what we’re saying here. Now that Trump is well into his second term as president, new names keep being added to the ranks.

Ahead, our running list of artists who have asked Trump to keep them and their music out of his mouth, and well out of his political materials, from the 2024 campaign onward.

ABBA

In August 2024, reps for ABBA told a Swedish news outlet that they’d discovered that the Trump campaign had played hits by the band—”The Winner Takes It All,” “Money, Money, Money,” and “Dancing Queen”—at a rally in St. Cloud, Minnesota. “We, together with the members of [ABBA], have discovered that videos have been released where ABBA’s music has been used at Trump’s events and have requested that such use be immediately taken down and removed. Universal Music Publishing AB and Polar Music International AB have not received any request, so no permission or license has been granted to Trump.” It’s safe to say that the band did not lay all their love on the campaign.

Bad Bunny

The Super Bowl 2026 halftime show headliner has long been critical of Trump, supporting Kamala Harris in the 2024 election and sharing several pro-Harris clips on social media after a Trump rally in which a performer called his native Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage.” He takes pretty much every opportunity to troll Trump and Co., as he did on this fall’s season premiere of Saturday Night Live, when he thoroughly roasted the MAGA set for its ongoing freakout about his existence.

The musician also told i-D in a September 2025 interview that he’d chosen to exclude the U.S. from his most recent performance itinerary over concerns about the Trump administration’s mass deportations.

“There were many reasons why I didn’t show up in the U.S., and none of them were out of hate—I’ve performed there many times,” he said. “There was the issue of—like, fucking ICE could be outside [my concert]. And it’s something that we were talking about and very concerned about.”

Beyoncé

Ahead of the 2024 presidential election, Beyoncé reportedly personally blessed Democratic candidate Harris’s use of her song “Freedom” as a campaign anthem, and eventually officially endorsed Harris. What she did not bless, however, was the Trump campaign using the same track just a few weeks later. When a Trump spokesman posted a clip of the then-candidate with the song as its soundtrack, Bey’s label reportedly issued a cease-and-desist, and the campaign did not receive permission for use. “Freedom” doesn’t mean free use.

Sabrina Carpenter

In December 2025, the White House posted a video using Carpenter’s song “Juno”—which was before best known as a celebration of a plethora of increasingly gymnastic sex positions—as the sonic backdrop to a montage of ICE officers detaining and arresting people. Carpenter responded on X: “this video is evil and disgusting. Do not ever involve me or my music to benefit your inhumane agenda.” Despite a White House spokeswoman trying to make several sassy lyrical puns in a response to Carpenter, the video has since been deleted.

Céline Dion

Near, far, wherever he is, representatives for Dion made it abundantly clear that Trump is by no means the king of her world, nor should he use her music.

After being made aware that a video of Dion performing the hit Titanic track played on screens ahead of an August 2024 rally in Bozeman, Montana, the singer’s team hit back on social media with a bonus burn questioning the wisdom of aligning one’s campaign with history’s most notorious sunken ship.

“In no way is this use authorized, and Céline Dion does not endorse this or any similar use,” the message read in part. “…And really, THAT song?”

Foo Fighters

When Trump welcomed Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to the stage for their first joint rally in August 2024 in Glendale, Arizona, the future Health and Human Services head honcho entered to the strains of the Foo Fighters’ “My Hero,” and endorsed Trump. The band was not amused, and said on social media that the campaign had not received permission to use the track. A representative for the band said that any royalties connected to Trump’s use of the song would be donated to Harris’s campaign.

“Foo Fighters were not asked permission, and if they were, they would not have granted it,” the rep said in a statement.

Isaac Hayes

The family of Isaac Hayes, who died in 2008, shared legal documents on social media in August 2024 explaining that they were suing the Trump campaign “for 134 counts [of] copyright infringement for the unauthorized use of the song ‘Hold On I’m Coming’ at campaign rallies from 2022-2024.” They also demanded “the cessation of use, removal of all related videos, a public disclaimer, and payment of $3 million in licensing fees,” and suggested they would take further legal action if the campaign failed to comply. In the attached letter detailing the estate’s demands, it’s revealed that $3 million is “a very discounted fee for the normal license fee associated with this many multiple uses. The normal fee for these infringements will be 10 times as much if we litigate, starting at $150,000 per use.”

In April 2025, a US District Court judge denied Trump’s motion to dismiss the suit.

Kenny Loggins

Loggins was surprised to hear his song “Danger Zone” playing over a video shared on social media by Trump in October 2025. The AI-generated video depicted Trump wearing a crown, flying a plane labeled “King Trump,” and dumping feces on protestors below. Sen. Bernie Sanders characterized the video to Vanity Fair as “not quite the image of the president of the United States that I was educated to respect when I was in the fourth grade.”

Loggins issued a statement denouncing the video and its use of his music as well. “This is an unauthorized use of my performance of ‘Danger Zone.’ Nobody asked me for my permission, which I would have denied, and I request that my recording on this video is removed immediately.”

“I can’t imagine why anybody would want their music used or associated with something created with the sole purpose of dividing us,” he added. “Too many people are trying to tear us apart, and we need to find new ways to come together.”

Sinéad O’Connor

In March 2024, after learning that Trump had used the late singer’s “Nothing Compares 2 U” at multiple rallies, O’Connor’s estate issued a strong rebuke and cease-and-desist. In a statement to media outlets, reps cited the singer’s “fierce moral code defined by honesty,  kindness, fairness, and decency towards her fellow human beings.”

“It was with outrage therefore that we learned that Donald Trump has been using her iconic performance of ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ at his political rallies,” it continues. “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.’ As the guardians of her legacy, we demand that Donald Trump and his associates desist from using her music immediately.”

Olivia Rodrigo

Pro tip: Just because a song has the word “American” in the title doesn’t mean that the government gets to use it willy-nilly. When the White House and the Department of Homeland Security shared an Instagram video of ICE agents detaining and arresting people using Rodrigo’s “All-American Bitch” in early November, with a caption encouraging people to “LEAVE NOW and self-deport using the CBP Home app.” The post warned, “If you don’t, you will face the consequences.” Rodrigo hit back in the post’s comments.

“don’t ever use my songs to promote your racist, hateful propaganda,” she wrote. As a grace note, the song is no longer available to use on Instagram, and the post, which remains as of this article’s publication, plays to silence.

The Smiths

Johnny Marr, the former guitarist for The Smiths, was distraught to learn in January 2024 that his band’s song, “Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want” had been played at multiple Trump rallies in September 2023 and January 2024.

“Ahh…right…OK. I never in a million years would’ve thought this could come to pass,” he wrote on social media. “Consider this shit shut right down right now.”

Bruce Springsteen

Springsteen has repeatedly denounced Trump, and long ago banned him from using his music for campaign or political purposes. But the guy is just so persistent and eloquent in dunking on Trump that we had to include him in the second-term list, as a treat.

In an October 2024 video officially endorsing Harris, the “Born in the USA” singer called Trump “the most dangerous candidate for president in my lifetime. His disdain for the sanctity of our constitution, the sanctity of democracy, the sanctity of the rule of law, and the sanctity of the peaceful transfer of power should disqualify him from the office of president ever again. He doesn’t understand the meaning of this country, its history, or what it means to be deeply American.”

Rufus Wainwright and Leonard Cohen

Wainwright’s cover of Leonard Cohen’s classic “Hallelujah” was among the songs Trump played at a bizarre October 2024 rally in Oaks, Pennsylvania, when the then-candidate turned a medical emergency in the crowd into an opportunity for an extended music listening party, standing on stage and swaying in front of the gathered attendees. The late Cohen’s estate asked Sony, his label, to issue the campaign a cease-and-desist, while Wainwright also issued a statement calling the song “an anthem dedicated to peace, love, and acceptance of the truth.”