A $10 million complaint filed in Virginia
Neil Young has taken a Trump fundraising committee to court for $10 million over its use of his 1989 track Rockin' in the Free World at a rally in Youngstown, Ohio, this month. The five-page complaint, which Rolling Stone obtained, was filed in federal court in Virginia, the state where the committee is based. The filing names the committee rather than Trump as an individual defendant.[S1][S2][S3][S4][S5][S6][S7][S8]
According to the filing, Trump understood that permission was necessary to play the song at an event and also knew that Young had neither given nor intended to give such permission. The complaint further states that the rally use came despite an earlier lawsuit and a 2020 settlement under which Trump allegedly committed never to use Young's music without approval.[S1][S7]
Young's lawyers, Robert Besser and Scott Simmons, joined him in arguing that the song's meaning sits far from the politics of the event where it was played. Requests for comment sent to the White House, the Trump 47 Committee and the Republican National Committee, which partnered with Trump on the joint fundraising committee, went unanswered at the time of the report.[S1]
How the song's meaning is framed
In the complaint, Young and his legal team describe the track as a fierce anthem that sets the empty pledges of American political speech against the hard conditions endured by people who are poor, homeless or forgotten. They say its verses sketch street-level scenes of a mother abandoning her baby, addicts overcome by despair and refuse accumulating in the shadow of wealth, while the recurring chorus carries a bitter irony about a freedom not shared by everyone.[S1]
The filing goes on to assert that the song stands for the reverse of everything Trump represents. It also notes that the 1989 recording was named Rolling Stone's best vintage rock song of 2026.[S1]
A dispute that goes back a decade
Young's conflict with Trump over the track reaches back to 2015, when Trump used it during the Trump Tower event announcing his presidential candidacy. A spokesperson for Young said at the time that the candidate had no authorization for the use and noted that the musician, a Canadian citizen, backed Bernie Sanders for president.[S1]
When Trump played the song again in 2018, Young objected once more, writing on his website that he had previously asked Trump in a widely circulated public letter to stop, and that Trump had ignored the request. Young, 80, says the track was played on Oct. 12 at the Youngstown rally where Trump spoke.[S1]
Young is far from the only musician who has pushed back against Trump's use of their work at rallies. Public objections have also come from the White Stripes, Rihanna, Axl Rose, Pharrell Williams and Linkin Park, along with the estates of Tom Petty and Sinéad O'Connor.[S1]
