Donald Trump Asked To Stop Using Air Force One: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack Too
At this point, it would be way more efficient to just make a list of the artists who are OK with Donald Trump using their music than to keep adding to the list of those who aren’t. But here we are! Trump has already been asked to please stop playing music by R.E.M., Aerosmith, Adele, House Of Pain, Neil Young, Queen, and George Harrison at his campaign rallies, and now he’s been asked to stop using the Air Force One: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack too. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Trump has been playing the Air Force One theme at rallies around the country for months, and it was used to soundtrack his arrival at last week’s frightening Republican National Convention. Now Gail Katz, producer of the 1991 thriller, has asked him to, you know, not do that.
“The music for Air Force One was composed and conducted by the legendary Oscar-winning film composer Jerry Goldsmith,” writes Katz in a letter to the Republican nominee’s campaign. Goldsmith passed away in 2004. “Jerry’s music was hijacked in a misguided attempt to associate Trump with the film and the President in that film … At no point were the filmmakers contacted to ask for permission to use Jerry’s music for the Republican campaign. We sincerely hope that Donald Trump and the Republicans do not use the Air Force One score in the future. It is a misappropriation of the music and the good will of the film, and we want to make sure that it does not imply any endorsement of the Republican ticket by the filmmakers.”
“From everything I know about Jerry Goldsmith’s political views, he would have been extremely unhappy with Trump co-opting his art to sell his image,” veteran film music agent Richard Kraft, who represented Goldsmith for 15 years rior to his death, tells THR. “Goldsmith composed music to underscore a make-believe, heroic president in [Air Force One], not to help create a phony soundtrack for Trump. He would have been appalled to have his music selling a product he would greatly dislike.”
Adds Katz, “The main point is that, similar to the plane in Air Force One, the music has been hijacked and we want it back.”