After Rihanna hit out at Donald Trump for using her music at one of his “tragic” Republican rallies over the weekend, the singer’s lawyers have now reportedly sent the US President a cease and desist letter to prevent his campaign team from ever playing one of her songs in public again.
The ‘Work’ singer offered a terse warning to the President in the early hours of yesterday (November 5) after her 2007 hit ‘Don’t Stop The Music’ was played at a Republican rally in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Trump showed up at Sunday’s event (November 4) to support Marsha Blackburn, who is running for the Senate in today’s midterm elections.
Responding to a tweet which claimed that ‘Don’t Stop The Music’ was being played as “free Trump t-shirts” were being tossed into the crowd, Rihanna wrote: “Not for much longer… me nor my people would ever be at or around one of those tragic rallies.”
Not for much longer…me nor my people would ever be at or around one of those tragic rallies, so thanks for the heads up philip! https://t.co/dRgRi06GrJ
— Rihanna (@rihanna) November 5, 2018
Rolling Stone have now reported that lawyers acting on behalf of Rihanna have issued Trump and his team with a cease and desist letter, preventing them from using any of the star’s songs at their public events from now on.
“As you are or should be aware, Ms. Fenty has not provided her consent to Mr. Trump to use her music,” her legal team reportedly wrote in a letter which was sent to Trump’s White House counsel. “Such use is therefore improper.”
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The letter adds the claim that Trump’s use of Rihanna’s music “creates a false impression that Ms. Fenty is affiliated with, connected to or otherwise associated with Trump.”
A few hours before tweeting her disapproval of Trump’s use of her music, Rihanna had publicly backed the Democratic candidate Andrew Gillum in his efforts to topple Rick Scott as the Governor of Florida.
“You have the opportunity to make history this election”, Rihanna wrote on Instagram (see the full post above).
“The US has only had four black governors in its entire history and we can help make #AndrewGillum the next one and Florida’s first.”
Rihanna’s warning and subsequent legal action comes only a week after Pharrell Williams condemned Trump for playing his hit ‘Happy’ at a rally which took place on the same day as the shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue that claimed the lives of 11 people.
In a cease and desist letter, Pharrell’s lawyer Howard King wrote: “On the day of the mass murder of 11 human beings at the hands of a deranged ‘nationalist,’ you played his song ‘Happy’ to a crowd at a political event in Indiana.
“There was nothing ‘happy’ about the tragedy inflicted upon our country on Saturday and no permission was granted for your use of this song for this purpose.”