Singer Pharrell Williams has sent President Donald Trump a cease and desist letter demanding the president stop playing any of Williams' songs at campaign rallies.
Williams' attorney Howard King wrote the cease and desist request which was obtained by the Los Angeles Times on Monday.
The letter came after Williams' "Happy" from Despicable Me 2 was played at a MAGA rally in Murphysboro, Illinois on Saturday just hours after a gunman massacred 11 Jews at Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
King wrote to Trump:
“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.”
King added that Williams owns the copyright to "Happy" and use of it by Trump amounts to copyright infringement.
"Pharrell has not, and will not, grant you permission to publicly perform or otherwise broadcast or disseminate any of his music. The use of 'Happy' without permission constitutes copyright infringement."
Twitter's reaction? "Good."
There was nothing "happy" about Saturday, but Trump, true to form, decided to make two campaign stops following the largest killing of American Jews in our country's history.
It's all about Trump.
Some are left wondering how anyone can still defend Trump considering his glibness following such tragedy.
"This wicked act of mass murder is pure evil, hard to believe and frankly something that is unimaginable," the president said in Murphysboro. "Our nation and the world are shocked and stunned by the grief."
Prior to the rally in Illinois, Trump gave a speech at the Future Farmers of America in Indianapolis, where he explained how he almost didn't show up because his hair got wet.
During his speech, Trump joked that he almost canceled the rally because it had been raining in Washington D.C., which had messed up his hair.
“By the way, somebody just said your hair looks different today,” Trump said in Indianapolis. "I was standing under the wing of Air Force One doing a news conference earlier this morning, a very unfortunate news conference, and the wind was blowing and the rain and I was soaking wet and that's what I ended up with today."
“And I said but at least you know it's mine," the president said, adding that he asked himself if he should “cancel this arrangement because I have a bad hair day."
“The bad news,” Trump said to laughs peppered throughout the audience, “somebody said, ‘actually it looks better than it usually does.'”
Watch below:
Trump eventually condemned antisemitism and other forms of prejudice.
"This wicked act of mass murder is pure evil, hard to believe and frankly something that is unimaginable," Trump said. "Our nation and the world are shocked and stunned by the grief."
Jane Rosenberg
Jane Rosenberg
@arianagrande/Instagram
@arianagrande/Instagram