In a Sunday evening tweet, pop star Rihanna said she will move to prevent her songs from being played at future rallies held by President Donald Trump.
Responding to Washington Post reporter Philip Rucker’s tweet about the singer’s song playing at the president’s Chattanooga rally, Rihanna wrote: “Not for much longer…me nor my people would ever be at or around one of those tragic rallies, so thanks for the heads up philip!”
Rihanna’s pledge comes after announcing her support for Democratic Florida gubernatorial nominee Andrew Gillum.
On Sunday, the Grammy Award-winning singer encouraged her nearly 66 million Instagram followers to vote for the far-left candidate:
FLORIDA: You have the opportunity to make history this election. The US has only had four black Governors in its entire history, and we can help make #AndrewGillum the next one and Florida’s first! If you’re tired of feeling like you don’t matter in the political process, know the most important thing you can do in supporting a candidate is finding someone who will take on critical issues such as: making minimum wage a livable wage, paying teachers what their worth, ensuring criminal justice reform, making healthcare a right, and repealing Stand Your Ground. That’s a platform we MUST support. Let’s #bringithome, Florida. Vote @andrewgillum. And VOTE YES on Amendment 4 to restore voting rights to folks who have already paid their debt to society. VOTE on November 6th!
Rihanna joins a growing list of musicians, including Guns N’ Roses co-founder Axl Rose, Elton John, and Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler, who have called on President Trump to cease playing their music during his rallies.
“Unfortunately the Trump campaign is using loopholes in the various venues’ blanket performance licenses which were not intended for such craven political purposes, without the songwriters’ consent,” Rose tweeted earlier Sunday morning. “Can u say “shitbags?!”
Shortly after the deadly Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, President Trump played Pharrell Williams’ “Happy,” at his Indiana rally, prompting the hip-hop producer to send the president’s re-election campaign a legal warning. “On the day of the mass murder of 11 human beings at the hands of a deranged ‘nationalist,’ you played his song ‘Happy’ to a crowd at a political event in Indiana,” read the cease and desist letter. “There was nothing ‘Happy’ about the tragedy inflicted upon our country on Saturday and no permission was granted for your use of this song for this purpose.”