The Trump campaign said that it respects the bench ruling and will not appeal it.
A federal judge in Atlanta issued a preliminary injunction on Sept. 3 for the Trump campaign to stop using Isaac Hayes’s song “Hold On, I’m Coming” at rallies.
The R&B song has often been played in the closing portion of former President Donald Trump’s rallies.
The presidential campaign for the GOP nominee said that it respects the bench ruling and will not appeal it.
“The campaign has no interest in annoying or hurting anyone,” Ron Coleman, a lawyer for the campaign, told reporters following the hearing. “And if the Hayes family feels that it hurts or annoys them, that’s fine. We’re not going to force the issue.”
Coleman said what the campaign cared about the most was the judge not ordering the campaign to remove videos it had made using the 1966 song.
Coleman said “it’s certainly conceivable” that there were political considerations behind the timing of the request given it is just a couple of months until the election.
“I think it’s just as conceivable that the timing was used as a pressure point as much as being the result of frank political motivations,” he said. “Everyone I’ve dealt with on the other side has been a complete gentleman.”
Hayes’s estate called on Trump on Aug. 11 to cease playing the song, remove videos with the song, issue a public disclaimer, and pay $3 million in licensing fees by Aug. 16. Otherwise, the estate would take legal action. Hayes died in 2008.
The campaign said that it had a fair-use license to play the song—something the Hayes estate denied.
“FALSE. Donald Trump for President has not had valid license for [nearly] 100 days, and @realDonaldTrump has NEVER had a license. Not to mention the numerous uses before Nov. 30th, 2022,” Isaac Hayes III, one of Hayes’s 11 children, wrote in a post on X on Sept. 2.
Hayes’s estate celebrated the ruling.
“No one has ever stood up to Donald Trump like this,” James Walker Jr., the lead attorney on the plaintiff side, told reporters.
Hayes III said his father’s estate is “very grateful and happy” with the decision.
“I couldn’t ask for a better decision. I want this as an opportunity for other artists to come forward and don’t want their music used by Donald Trump or other political entities and continue to fight for music artists’ rights and copyright,” he said.
Other artists who have called on Trump to stop playing their music at his rallies include Celine Dion, Rihanna, Bruce Springsteen, and Guns N’ Roses. They have not taken legal action against his campaign.
The Hayes estate said it will push in court for the Trump campaign to remove its videos that contain the song.
The battle between the Hayes estate and Trump began in 2022 after the song was played following Trump’s speech at that year’s NRA Annual Meeting, which occurred shortly after the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, where a gunman killed 21 people and injured 21 others. A cease-and-desist letter was sent to Trump, but he continued to use the music.