President Donald Trump's use of Hans Zimmer's Why Do We Fall? from The Dark Knight Rises' score in a 2020 campaign video on Twitter was unauthorized, says Warner Bros.
According to Deadline, Warner Bros. demanded President Trump remove the video featuring Zimmer's score to avoid a legal dispute. "The use of Warner Bros.’ score from The Dark Knight Rises in the campaign video was unauthorized," a spokesperson for Warner Bros. said. "We are working through the appropriate legal channels to have it removed."
The video posted by President Trump, which remained up until shortly after midnight on Wednesday before being removed, was captioned, "MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!" and featured clips of Washington, D.C. landmarks, the Clintons, Barack Obama, celebrity detractors -- including Rosie O'Donnell, Bryan Cranston and Amy Schumer -- as well as Trump campaign rallies and other milestones during his first term as President of the United States. The video also featured the following text throughout: "First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they call you racist. Donald J. Trump. Your vote proved them all wrong. Trump. The great victory. 2020." The tweet has since been deleted.
This was not President Trump's first run-in with a film studio or television network for misuse of intellectual property. In November 2018, HBO expressed its displeasure in Trump's use of Game of Thrones' trademarked font in a Twitter photo.