Trump Ordered To Cease Using Isaac Hayes Song In Campaign

A federal judge ruled Tuesday that former President Donald Trump must stop playing “Hold On, I’m Coming” by Isaac Hayes during campaign events.

“I do order Trump and his campaign to not use the song without proper license,” Judge Thomas Thrash Jr. said in a hearing in Atlanta, according to CNN.

The ruling comes after the estate of the late R&B singer sued Trump for $3 million for copyright infringement for using the song at campaign events without permission or authorization. According to the lawsuit, the singer’s estate has “asked repeatedly” for Trump’s campaign not to use the song.

The estate also requested that Trump’s team take down any previously recorded uses of the song, but the judge denied that motion.

“I don’t want that song associated with Donald Trump. I don’t want people to hear ‘Hold On, I’m Coming’ and think of Donald Trump because of the nature and the character of the person that he is,” Hayes’s son Isaac Hayes III told CNN in a recent interview.

“Donald Trump represents the worst in honesty, integrity and class and want no association with his campaign of hate and racism,” Isaac Hayes III wrote on social media in August.

Over the weekend, Trump’s team responded to the lawsuit with a declaration from Sam Moore, who, along with Dave Prater, was the performer of the song. In the declaration, Moore said that Isaac Hayes “did not view Republicans or the Republican party negatively while he was alive” and that stopping the use of the song could prevent Moore from performing it at a future Trump event.

Trump’s team also argued that Isaac Hayes’ estate was not the song’s license holder and that they got permission from BMI, a music rights management company.

The song has been played a number of times at Trump rallies before the candidate’s speeches.

Other artists have said that Trump and his team weren’t given permission to use their songs at rallies, including Celine Dion, ABBA, Sinéad O’Connor’s estate, Beyoncé and the Foo Fighters.