Warner Bros Files a Copyright Claim In Response to Trump's Use of 'Dark Knight Rises' Score

Donald Trump posted a now unavailable re-election campaign video on his twitter yesterday, April 9th. About two minutes long, the rather dramatic video displayed the text "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they call you racist", underscored by what was quickly identified to be Hans Zimmer's soundtrack for the 2012 Batman film The Dark Knight Rises. The tweet is still up, but the video has been disabled.

Soon after Trump tweeted the video, Warner Bros released a statement: “The use of Warner Bros’ score from The Dark Knight Rises in the campaign video was unauthorised." About an hour later, the video was disabled on twitter, displaying the message "This media has been disabled in response to a report by the copyright owner."

Trump has frequently found himself in hot water for his use of music in his rallies and media. A number of artists including Prince, The Rolling Stones, Rihanna, and Neil Young have spoken out against his use of their music in his campaign. Trump has been known to make use of pop culture references in his rhetoric. Threatening sanctions against Iran, he put out posters that utilized imagery reminiscent of Game of Thrones and bore the slogan 'Sanctions Are Coming'.