‘No evidence of public benefit’: Trump found liable for posting video ‘taken from the internet’ mocking Joe Biden as ‘Electric Avenue’ played, paving way for damages

Eddy Grant, Donald Trump

Left: British reggae-rock musician Eddy Grant, performing during the 42nd Montreux Jazz Festival in Montreux, Switzerland, in 2008, sued Trump over the use of his 1980s hit Electric Avenue in a Trump campaign animated video that mocked his then opponent Joe Biden. (AP Photo/KEYSTONE/Jean-Christophe Bott, File). Right: Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump waves as he departs a campaign event at Central Wisconsin Airport on Sept. 7, 2024, in Mosinee, Wis. (AP Photo/Morry Gash).

After a multi-year legal battle, President-elect Donald Trump and Guyanese-British singer Eddy Grant settled a copyright lawsuit over the unauthorized use of the 1984 hit funk song “Electric Avenue.”

In August 2020, Trump’s then-Twitter account posted a 55-second-long animated clip mocking Joe Biden months before the latter was elected president. In the video, a cartoon version of Biden manually pumps the handcar of a train moving quite slowly through a snow-covered town. As embarrassing video clips of Biden play in the background, the popular song provides the non-diegetic soundtrack.

In September 2020, Grant sued Trump and his campaign in the Southern District of New York for violating the songwriter’s copyright.

“I call upon such arbiter, as is responsible for this sordid abuse, to come forward like a man and let’s sort this thing out, in the way that America demands when such issues are to be sorted, especially when they are wrong,” Grant said at the time he filed the lawsuit. “Mr. Trump, I am calling on you. You are the final arbiter and I await the word from you.”