Neil Young Sues Trump Committee for $10 Million Over “Rockin' in the Free World”
Neil Young has sued the Trump 47 Committee for $10 million, alleging that his 1989 song “Rockin' in the Free World” was played without a licence at a rally in Ohio — the second lawsuit over the song, after a 2020 case ended in a settlement.
The October rally at the centre of the case
Neil Young sued a group associated with President Donald Trump for copyright infringement in federal court in Virginia on Monday, Reuters reported, over the alleged misuse of his song “Rockin' in the Free World” at an October rally. The complaint, filed against the Trump 47 Committee, said the 1989 song was played without a licence before Mr Trump took the stage at a rally in Youngstown, Ohio, on 12 October in support of Republican midterm election candidates.
Reuters reported that Young asked the court for $10 million in damages. According to reporting on the complaint by Billboard, cited by Consequence, Young is also seeking an order barring the committee from using his music going forward. The complaint further alleged that the recording had been played “numerous times” at other rallies, according to a summary of the filing published by Particle News.
A dispute going back to 2015
This is not the first time Young has taken legal action over the song. Reuters reported that he previously sued the Trump campaign in 2020 for using “Rockin' in the Free World” and another Young song at campaign rallies without permission, and that the case was settled later that year after the campaign promised never to use “Rockin' in the Free World” again without a licence.
Consequence reported that the disagreement stretches back further still: Mr Trump used the song when he launched his first presidential campaign at Trump Tower in June 2015, prompting Young to object publicly at the time. The new complaint argues, in the words quoted by Reuters, that the song's lyrics paint “vivid street-level portraits” of hardship, and concludes: “In short, the song is the opposite of everything Donald J. Trump stands for.”
What Young is asking the court to do
The case, Young v. Trump 47 Committee Inc, was filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Reuters reported. Young argues that the unauthorised use wrongly implies his endorsement and has damaged his reputation and brand, according to the summaries of the complaint published by Bloomberg Law and Particle News.
Reuters reported that spokespeople for the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the complaint. No hearing date has been set, Consequence reported, and the committee will have the usual period after formal service to respond. For Young, the filing draws a clear line: a song he has defended for more than a decade, he argues, should not be played at political rallies without his permission.
Sources: Reuters, 26 October 2026; Consequence, 26 October 2026; Bloomberg Law, 26 October 2026.