Canadian rock legend Neil Young is suing U.S. President Donald Trump‘s political fundraising committee for copyright infringement over the alleged misuse of his song Rockin’ in the Free World at an October midterm elections rally.
The Toronto-born singer, who is a vocal critic of the U.S. president, alleged in a complaint filed in Virginia on Monday against the Trump 47 Committee that the song was played without a licence before Trump took the stage in Youngstown, Ohio, while supporting Republican midterm election candidates on October 12.
“On information and belief, the committee has caused the song to be played numerous times at other rallies designed to encourage Republican votes in the upcoming mid-term elections,” the court filing reads.
It goes on to describe the 1989 song as a “blistering anthem that contrasts the hollow promises of American political rhetoric with the harsh realities faced by the poor, homeless, and forgotten.”
“The song is the opposite of everything Donald Trump stands for,” the document continues, noting that its enduring popularity was recently recognized by Rolling Stone, which named it Vintage Rock Song of 2026 and that the anthem was recently performed live on stage by famous musical artists such as Bruce Springsteen, Dave Grohl and Dave Matthews.
It accuses Trump of being aware that a licence would be required to play the song at rallies and that Young had not or would not grant the licence.
This is the second time the musician has sued a Trump-associated body for using copyrighted material without permission. In 2020, he sued Trump’s re-election campaign for using Rockin’ in the Free World and Devil’s Sidewalk at campaign rallies without proper licensing.
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That case was settled, according to the filing, with the campaign promising to never play the music again at one of its events.
The repeated use of Young’s songs at Trump rallies has damaged the singer’s reputation, the lawsuit argues, as a result of the implication that Young supports Trump’s political agenda.
Young is asking for $10 million in damages.
An outspoken critic of Trump, last year, the Canadian rocker released a song titled Big Crime, taking aim at the president.
Young first played the track criticizing the Trump administration at a show in Chicago with his band The Chrome Hearts in August 2025 and later posted the song’s lyrics on his Neil Young Archives website.
“There’s big crime in D.C. at the White House,” the 80-year-old rock icon sings in the chorus. Other lyrics aimed at Trump but not mentioning the president by name include “don’t need no fascist rules, don’t want no fascist schools, don’t want no soldiers walking on the streets.”
“Got to get the fascists out, got to clean the White House out, don’t want soldiers on our streets,” Young sings.
He also takes Trump’s signature slogan, “Make America Great Again,” and repeats throughout the song, “No more great again.”
Young, who is a Canadian-American dual citizen, has directly criticized Trump in the past. Last May, he told him to stop “worrying” about what Bruce Springsteen, another outspoken critic of the president, and other celebrities think of him.
Young’s comments came after Trump escalated his feud with Springsteen, calling for a “major investigation” into the rock legend after Springsteen branded the Trump administration as “corrupt, incompetent and treasonous” during a concert in England.
Springsteen and Young are not the only musicians to push back on appropriation of their music.
In June, Ariana Grande called out the Trump administration for attaching her music to its social media content. The Grammy-winning pop star wrote, “Please do not ever use my music in relation to this barbaric, inhumane, heinous nonsense,” after her 2024 hit Bye was played over a TikTok highlighting Trump’s immigration policy.
Responding to Grande, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said: “We’ll say this one last time: what’s actually barbaric, inhumane, and heinous are the criminal illegal aliens who have injured and murdered innocent American citizens.”
Sabrina Carpenter and Taylor Swift have also condemned the use of their music by the Trump administration on social media. Carpenter’s song Juno was used in an official ICE video, a move she called “evil and disgusting.” Meanwhile, Swift had several of her songs removed from White House social media campaign videos.
Trump has repeatedly criticized Swift after she publicly endorsed Kamala Harris, having written in a past social media post, “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!” “Has anyone noticed that, since I said ‘I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT,’ she’s no longer “HOT?”
— with files from Global News’ Katie Scott and Reuters
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
