Neil Young has filed a $10m (£7.47m) copyright lawsuit against Trump 47 Committee Inc, the political action committee tied to Donald Trump, over the use of his song "Rockin' in the Free World" at recent midterm election rallies.
The complaint was lodged on Monday in the US district court for the eastern district of Virginia. It accuses the committee of continuing to play the 1989 track as walk-up music for the president without permission. Young is also asking the court for an injunction to stop further public performances of the song.
This is the second time the musician has taken legal action against a Trump organisation over the same song. In 2020, he sued the corporation Donald J Trump for President Inc. Trump settled that case, and according to Young's new filing, promised that his organisation "would never again use Rockin' in the Free World without a license and permission from Young."
Young's lawyers point to a rally in Ohio on 12 October, where the song was played. They say it has also been used "numerous times at other rallies designed to encourage Republican votes in the upcoming mid-term elections." The suit argues that the ongoing use has damaged Young's reputation and brand because it suggests he supports Trump "in any way." Young is a vocal critic of the president. Trump's administration has not yet responded to the suit.
The filing also describes the song's meaning and why, in Young's view, it clashes with Trump's politics. It calls the track "a blistering anthem that contrasts the hollow promises of American political rhetoric with the harsh realities faced by the poor, homeless and forgotten." According to the complaint, the lyrics offer street-level portraits of a mother discarding her baby, addicts lost in despair and garbage piling up in the shadows of prosperity, while the repeated chorus delivers a savage irony about a freedom not shared by all. "In short, the song is the opposite of everything that Donald J Trump stands for," the suit says.
Young's opposition to the president is well documented. He has repeatedly criticised Trump in writings on his website, and in 2025 he released a protest song about the administration called "Big Crime." In it he sings: "Don't need no fascist rules / Don't want no fascist schools / Don't want soldiers walking on the streets."
The case comes amid a wider pattern over the past 12 months in which the Trump presidency has used songs by artists seen as left-leaning in its online material. Olivia Rodrigo, Sabrina Carpenter and SZA have all had their music used to soundtrack ICE propaganda or clips about Trump's strategy in Iran. In August, Taylor Swift had her song "August" removed from a video celebrating the Trump presidency.
