The White Stripes have dropped their copyright infringement lawsuit against Donald Trump over the unauthorized use of “Seven Nation Army” in a campaign video released earlier this year.
Jack and Meg White announced their decision to dismiss the suit in a short filing issued yesterday, Nov. 10. They chose to dismiss the claims “without prejudice,” meaning they could decide to bring them again. The dismissal comes just under a week after Trump won the 2024 presidential election.
A lawyer for Trump did not immediately return Rolling Stone’s request for comment.
The suit was brought in September over a video shared on social media by Margo Martin, the Deputy Director of Communications for the Trump-associated Save America PAC. “Seven Nation Army” soundtracked the 10-second clip, which was reportedly viewed about 65,000 times before White was made aware of it.
“Don’t even think about using my music you fascists,” wrote in an Instagram post responding to the video. “Law suit coming from my lawyers about this (to add to your 5 thousand others.) Have a great day at work today Margo Martin.”
While the clip was eventually deleted, White followed through on the lawsuit, which named Trump, Martin, and the Trump campaign as defendants. The suit accused Trump and his team of “flagrant misappropriation” when they used the song’s “highly-distinctive and immediately recognizable introductory riff” as the soundtrack to a video showing Trump boarding a plane en route to campaign stops in Michigan and Wisconsin.
The White Stripes’ spat with Trump and his campaign came on the heels of a similar incident involving a Beyoncé song and a Trump aide’s video. That one was even more pointed as the clip contained a snippet of Beyoncé’s “Freedom,” which had become an unofficial campaign song for Kamala Harris. At the time, a source close to Beyoncé told Rolling Stone that the Trump campaign did not receive permission to use the Lemonade track in the video (which was eventually deleted as well).
From Rolling Stone US
