After threatening legal action against “fascist” Donald Trump last month for using The White Stripes’ classic “Seven Nation Army” in social media campaign videos, Jack White has made good on his word.
He and bandmate Meg White sued the Republican presidential nominee and related parties in the U.S. District Court of Southern New York for copyright infringement on Monday.
Documents obtained by TheWrap cite the Trump re-election campaign’s attempts to “burnish Defendant Trump’s public image, and generate financial and other support for his campaign and candidacy on the backs of Plaintiffs, whose permission and endorsement he neither sought nor obtained in violation of their rights under federal copyright law.”
“This machine sues fascists,” frontman White wrote on Instagram Monday, posting a screengrab of the lawsuit to his profile.
The White Stripes’ lawsuit also named the Trump campaign and its deputy director of communications, Margo Martin, claiming that the Defendants “chose to ignore and not respond to Plaintiffs’ pre-litigation efforts to resolve the matters at issue in this action, leaving Plaintiffs with no choice but to seek judicial recourse in order to hold Defendants accountable.”
The lawsuit specifically cited a video posted on the campaign’s social media channels across X and Instagram of Trump boarding an aircraft with the tag line “President @realDonaldTrump departs for Michigan and Wisconsin!” The “highly-distinctive and immediately recognizable introductory riff” of “Seven Nation Army” accompanied the clip.
“The new association with Defendant Trump that Defendants have foisted upon Plaintiffs through the Infringing Trump Videos is even more offensive to Plaintiffs because Plaintiffs vehemently oppose the policies adopted and actions taken by Defendant Trump when he was President and those he has proposed for the second term he seeks,” the suit read.
Jack and Meg White demand a trial by jury to address the charges, and that they be “awarded all damages suffered by them and any profits or gain enjoyed” by Trump’s use of “Seven Nation Army.”
Representatives for the Trump campaign did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.
