Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s production company put Trump on legal notice

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By Steve Schuster

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On Saturday, former President Donald Trump posted a video to social media using a monologue from Matt Damon’s movie ‘Air,’ paired with images and video of the former President.

Artists Equity, a production company that produced ‘Air’ and was co-founded by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon issued a statement Saturday shortly after Trump’s social media post.

“We had no foreknowledge of, did not consent to and do not endorse or approve any footage or audio from Air being repurposed by the Trump campaign as a political advertisement or for any other use,” Artists Equity officials said in the written statement.

“Specifically in terms of any & all rights available to us under U.S. copyright and intellectual property law, we hereby, expressly give notice that in the case of any use of material from Air by the Trump campaign where approval or consent is required, we do not grant such consent.”

In Trump’s Saturday social media post, Damon’s voice said, “Money can buy you almost anything, but it can’t buy you immortality,” while the former president takes a leisurely stroll from his helicopter toward the camera.

The video was used by the Trump campaign to solicit donations from supporters.

Huffington Post reported a Trump campaign spokesperson responded with an emoji.

Yahoo News reported the Trump campaign has a track record for abuse of Hollywood intellectual property.  When Trump was president, he also used images, music and video from HBO’s Game of Thrones and The Dark Knight in tweets and other content. However, according to Yahoo,  Saturday’s social media post was the first time Trump “has taken an entire monologue from a film and repurposed it for a campaign ad.”

According to IMDB, the movie ‘Air’ “”follows the history of sports marketing executive Sonny Vaccaro, and how he led Nike in its pursuit of the greatest athlete in the history of basketball, Michael Jordan.”

This is not the first time Nashville or Hollywood has spoken up against Trump.

As previously reported by the Wisconsin Law Journal, a Taylor Swift video (circa 2020) has surfaced recently on social media.  Waxing poetic, Swift talks about being “on the right side of history” speaking up against former President Donald Trump ahead of a Presidential election.