Former President Donald Trump has reportedly received a cease and desist letter from a disco band upset at him for dancing to their Macho Man song.
Trump likes the Village People’s tune so much that he’s danced to a tribute band playing it at his Mar-a-Lago resort, and a video of it went viral. A handful of performers with outfits similar to the band’s signature costumes dance by a pool, as Trump waves his arms back and forth to the music.
But Karen Willis, the wife of the band’s lead singer Victor Willis, on Monday sent a letter to Trump’s lawyer Joe Tacopina calling the performance ‘unauthorized’, Rolling Stone reported.
The video of performers impersonating the Village People has led ‘many fans, and the general public as well, (to) mistakenly believe’ that the actual band members participated, claims Karen.
Karen, who is also the band’s manager, alleges that the performance violates the copyright-focused Langham Act, which protects trademark owners ‘against the use of similar marks if such use is likely to result in consumer confusion’.
Victor ‘tolerated’ Trump using his band’s music in the past, according to the letter obtained by TMZ. But he is now demanding that Trump stop using Village People music and images, and threatening to sue otherwise.
Tacopina did not seem concerned about the legal threat from Karen.
‘I will only deal with the attorney of the Village People, if they have one, not the wife of one of the members. But they should be thankful that President Trump allowed them to get their name back in the press,’ Tacopina told TMZ.
‘I haven’t heard their name in decades. Glad to hear they are still around.’
Trump is already facing multiple lawsuits and legal problems. They include appealing a jury finding him liable for sexually abusing and defaming columnist E Jean Carroll and awarding her $5million.
In early April, Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records and his alleged role in a hush payment to a porn star. About a week after that, Trump sat for a second deposition in the New York attorney general’s $250million civil lawsuit alleging fraud by him, his three eldest children and his company.
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