Axl Rose, Rihanna, and More Don’t Want Donald Trump Using Their Music

Also why are these songs played at his rallies?
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In a typical mood for 2018, musicians have now begun to tell the president that he isn’t allowed to use their songs at his rallies anymore. To be fair, the president is using wildly inappropriate songs at his rallies anyway—not inappropriate in nature themselves, but more so that every song doesn’t really even seem to fit in with his ideals.

It’s like someone who doesn’t like Donald Trump picked the music, and he just goes along with it, and everyone at the rally also accepts it. So when some of these artists realized what was happening, they wanted to fight back. Guns N’ Roses’ Axl Rose unexpectedly tweeted about the incident and his feelings on it.

Rose is an enigma of a man, and everyone was pretty surprised by the sudden plot twist.

Even Chris Hayes, host of All in With Chris on MSNBC, was shocked by this turn of events.

A surge of celebrities started chiming in, many discovering through social media that their music was being used (meaning Trump isn’t paying for it). Rihanna, one of the artists that Trump seems to think would be cool with having her music played at his rallies, weighed in when she discovered what was going on.

For a comprehensive list of artists who are against Trump using their music, please see below:

What’s really nuts in this whole story isn’t that Trump doesn’t pay for music—that’s not surprising—but rather the song choices that his team went with. Like … what’s next? Are you going to choose Alanis Morissette’s “Ironic”? Because that’s what these are.

For instance, QZ reported that Trump has songs like “Sympathy of the Devil” on his rally playlist, and “It’s The End of the World As We Know It” by R.E.M—not to mention “Purple Rain,” which … why? You’re not guiding us anywhere. That said, maybe there is good to come out of this.

Seeing these artists openly sending the president of the United States cease and desist letters for their music give us hope that he will only be allowed to play Kid Rock and Ted Nugent music from now on, a tragic fate that his crowds richly deserve.

(image: Caroline McCredie/Getty Images for Fenty Beauty by Rihanna)

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Rachel Leishman
Rachel Leishman (She/Her) is an Assistant Editor at the Mary Sue. She's been a writer professionally since 2016 but was always obsessed with movies and television and writing about them growing up. A lover of Spider-Man and Wanda Maximoff's biggest defender, she has interests in all things nerdy and a cat named Benjamin Wyatt the cat. If you want to talk classic rock music or all things Harrison Ford, she's your girl but her interests span far and wide. Yes, she knows she looks like Florence Pugh. She has multiple podcasts, normally has opinions on any bit of pop culture, and can tell you can actors entire filmography off the top of her head. Her current obsession is Glen Powell's dog, Brisket. Her work at the Mary Sue often includes Star Wars, Marvel, DC, movie reviews, and interviews.