Ben Affleck, Matt Damon "did not consent" to use of Air monologue in Trump Campaign Video

Matt Damon and Ben Affleck’s production company have condemned the unauthorized use of a monologue from their recent film Air, saying it “did not consent” to the monologue being used in a new Donald Trump campaign video.

On Saturday, the former US president posted a video featuring clips of him from throughout his life, backdropped to a speech by Damon from the new movie, to his right-wing social media platform Truth Social.

Directed by Affleck and starring him and Damon, Air follows the story of the game-changing partnership between a rookie Michael Jordan and Nike’s fledgling basketball division. The film was produced by Damon and Affleck’s firm Artists Equity, which was formed last year with RedBird Capital.

The two-and-a-half minute video used by Trump features the near-entirety of the audio from a Damon-delivered speech. In the film, the speech is spoken in an effort to get Michael Jordan to sign with Nike, but the clip has been used by Trump to get MAGA Nation to part with their money.

The Trump campaign has abused Hollywood IP before. While he was president, Trump used images, music and video from HBO’s Game of Thrones and The Dark Knight in tweets and various other online content. However, the Air clip is the first time he has taken an entire monologue from a film and repurposed it for a campaign ad.

A statement posted on Damon and Affleck's company’s Twitter account said: “We had no foreknowledge of, did not consent to and do not endorse or approve any footage or audio from Air being repurposed by the Trump campaign as a political advertisement or for any other use.

We had no foreknowledge of, did not consent to and do not endorse or approve any footage or audio from Air being repurposed by the Trump campaign as a political advertisement or for any other use.

— Artists Equity (@artists_equity) June 10, 2023

In November, Trump announced that he was entering the 2024 US presidential race for a second term.

He is currently facing a grand jury investigation, which has led to a criminal indictment and could result in the first criminal prosecution of a former US president.

He remains one of the frontrunners for the 2024 Republican nomination despite his mounting legal woes, which also include criminal sexual abuse charges filed against him in March in New York.