Neil Young is "changing his mind" about not suing Trump for using his music
Neil Young says he’s changed his mind about not suing Donald Trump, an idea he’s considered but rejected after Trump played his songs, “Rockin’ in the Free World” included, multiple times at events, without his permission.
Young has been insistent that Trump stop using his music, but after the most recent instance, at a Fourth of July event at Mount Rushmore, said “Because you are in charge of the COVID-19 response here in the USA, I will not sue (as certainly is my right) potentially distracting from your important work at hand protecting and saving American lives.”
In a new letter, Young has expressed a change in heart, however, saying that he is reconsidering his plan to sue because of Trump’s decision to employ heavily-armed Federal officers at protests across the country.. As Young wrote, “President Trump ordered thugs in uniforms onto our streets. His idea. He ordered this himself. This is all DJT. He told them to wear camouflage, use unmarked vehicles to take people away, innocent people peacefully protesting – their constitutional right as US citizens.”
As Young continues, referencing a video of “Trump’s trooper thugs” attacking a NAVY veteran, he is disgusted with Trump’s lack of respect for the military in particular, saying, “[The military is] not to be used on the streets of America against law-abiding citizens for a Political charade orchestrated by a challenged President. It’s a complete disgrace, the way he plays citizens against one another for his own political gain […] The elected representatives in all these cities and states are against Trump’s military thugs shooting people on the streets. Our military is against it. This is not their sacred mission.”
“This is not what our US military does,” he continues. “They know they are not to be on the streets doing a rogue president’s bidding for his own political gain, harming innocent citizens who are legally protesting.”
“When the states asked for help with Covid 19, the president did not give it,” Young writes. “He said he’s not responsible. When they said don’t bring military to our streets – we don’t need that, he did it anyway for his own political reasons – not for America. This rogue president is creating a much worse problem with his street thug army of uniformed hatred.”
“Imagine what it feels like to hear ‘Rockin’ in the Free World’ after this President speaks, like it is his theme song,” he concludes the letter, writing, “I did not write it for that.” You can read the entire letter here.
Young has been vocally against Trump for some time now, and recently backed Biden in the 2020 presidential election.
