Trump admin hit with cease and desist from singer-songwriter JMSN over the president’s new ad campaign
Lawyers for singer-songwriter JMSN have sent a cease-and-desist letter to White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, demanding that the Trump administration stop using his song “Love Me” in a taxpayer-funded video advertisement promoting President Donald Trump.
The letter demands that the White House remove the song from the ad and stop airing it on television, online and social media. It seeks written confirmation that the White House has “ceased its infringing activities” by 5 p.m. on October 1. It also calls on the White House to “immediately withdraw” the 2023 song from scheduled airings and delete it from videos on YouTube, TikTok and Facebook.
The attorneys are also seeking a written account of every airing and online posting, including the date, time, network or station, market, program and total media spend.
Legal claims in the letter
The letter says the use of “Love Me” violates federal copyright law. It also accuses the government of “misleading” use of the song in violation of the Lanham Act, which prohibits false endorsement or association.
“To be absolutely clear, JMSN does not want to be viewed as directly or indirectly affiliated with the president or his administration,” the letter states. It adds that using the song in “an overtly partisan, political advertisement” is “particularly damaging” because it could lead others to question the singer’s “artistic independence and integrity.”
The letter was signed by Norm Eisen, a former White House ethics czar under President Barack Obama. Eisen’s group, Democracy Defenders Action, and law firm Ballard Spahr LLP are also listed as representing the singer.
JMSN’s public response
JMSN (real name: Christian Berishaj) wrote and released “Love Me” in 2023 on his independent label, White Room Records.
In a post on X, he said he never granted the White House a license to use the song. “To anybody who has followed my career and knows what I stand for and built my career on, it should go without saying that I would never authorize my music to be used for ANY political agenda or campaign,” he wrote.
In a separate Instagram post, JMSN said the situation could have gone one of two ways: The president’s team could have asked to license the song and he could have agreed or the song could have been used without permission, leading the public to assume a license had been granted. “Obviously it went the second way,” he wrote.
What the ad shows
The ad first aired on Fox News during Jesse Watters Primetime. It repeats the words “love me” from the song over patriotic imagery featuring flags and Trump. It also highlights policies such as tax cuts and defending “law and order.”
“We will defeat communism, socialism and Marxism in America,” Trump says in the ad, which includes footage from his second term, including rallies, turkey pardons, the FIFA trophy presentation and Trump posing outside the Taj Mahal. On-screen text reads, “America will never be a communist country.”
The ad closes with UFC CEO Dana White praising Trump as “the toughest, most resilient person I’ve ever met” and saying “nothing was going to stop him from fighting so hard for the country he loves.”
White House defends the ads
A White House spokesperson said that the ads “are about reminding Americans to love their country and understand what makes it worth defending, at home, at our borders and abroad.” A White House official previously described the spots as public service announcements that are “clearly not political.”
The official noted that Trump is not on the ballot in the midterm elections and that the ads contain no calls to action. The White House has compared the spots with public service announcements released by previous presidents.