--- title: Prince Estate Slams Donald Trump Rally for Using Purple Rain description: Prince's estate is calling out Donald Trump for reportedly using his song 'Purple Rain' at a campaign rally in Minneapolis this week. canonical: https://time.com/5698383/prince-estate-condemns-donald-trump-rally-using-purple-rain/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-10-11T15:19:17.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:00:48.021Z og:title: Prince Estate Slams Donald Trump Rally for Using Purple Rain og:description: "The Prince Estate will never give permission to President Trump to use Prince’s songs" og:url: https://time.com/5698383/prince-estate-condemns-donald-trump-rally-using-purple-rain/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt878c2d524ec5daa3/698a042409208f1281415aaa/prince-estate-slams-trump-rally-using-purple-rain.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Prince Live In LA og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Prince Estate Slams Donald Trump Rally for Using Purple Rain twitter:description: "The Prince Estate will never give permission to President Trump to use Prince’s songs" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt878c2d524ec5daa3/698a042409208f1281415aaa/prince-estate-slams-trump-rally-using-purple-rain.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Prince Estate Slams Trump For Playing 'Purple Rain' at a Campaign Rally in Minneapolis  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Oct 11, 2019 3:19 PM UTC  INGLEWOOD, CA - FEBRUARY 19: Prince performs live at the Fabulous Forum on February 19, 1985 in Inglewood, California. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images) INGLEWOOD, CA - FEBRUARY 19: Prince performs live at the Fabulous Forum on February 19, 1985 in Inglewood, California. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)Michael Ochs Archives—This content is subject to copyright.  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Oct 11, 2019 3:19 PM UTC The estate of late [musical icon Prince](https://time.com/5305229/prince-piano-and-a-microphone-album/) has condemned President Donald Trump reported use of [“Purple Rain”](https://time.com/4437859/prince-purple-rain-anniversary/) at a campaign rally in Prince’s hometown of Minneapolis on Thursday night. In a statement sent out from Prince’s official Twitter account, his estate slammed Trump for playing the song despite a legal agreement made last year, where the campaign confirmed that they would not use “Purple Rain” or any other Prince music at campaign events or rallies. “President Trump played Prince’s ‘Purple Rain’ tonight at a campaign event in Minneapolis despite confirming a year ago that the campaign would not use Prince’s music,” the estate wrote on Twitter late on Thursday night. “The Prince Estate will never give permission to President Trump to use Prince’s songs.” The tweet also included a copy of a letter, dated October 15, 2018, from a law firm that appeared to show a legal agreement not to use the music. This isn’t the first time that the Trump campaign has experienced pushback from artists who don’t want their music associated with Trump and his rallies; in the past, artists like [Rihanna](https://time.com/5444498/trump-rally-rihanna/), [Pharrell](https://time.com/5438779/pharrell-trump-happy/), [Neil Young](https://time.com/3923708/donald-trump-neil-young-song/), [R.E.M.](https://time.com/5531454/rem-trump-democrats-everybody-hurts/), and [Aerosmith](https://time.com/5375337/steven-tyler-trump-aerosmith-songs-rallies/) have objected to having their work used at his campaign events. Unfortunately for many of these artists, as long as a candidate pays for the rights to a song, [they’re technically able to use whatever music they want](https://time.com/5444926/rihanna-trump-legal/). The only exception is political commercials. However, since Prince’s estate appears to have a legal agreement with the Trump campaign that prevents Trump from using Prince’s music, their case could be the exception to the rule. Read the full letter below. > [](https://twitter.com/prince/status/1182484599781416960) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5698383/prince-estate-condemns-donald-trump-rally-using-purple-rain/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5698383/prince-estate-condemns-donald-trump-rally-using-purple-rain/"},"headline":"Prince Estate Slams Trump For Playing 'Purple Rain' at a Campaign Rally in Minneapolis","datePublished":"2019-10-11T15:19:17.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:00:48.021Z","description":"\"The Prince Estate will never give permission to President Trump to use Prince’s songs\"","url":"https://time.com/5698383/prince-estate-condemns-donald-trump-rally-using-purple-rain/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Music","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt878c2d524ec5daa3/698a042409208f1281415aaa/prince-estate-slams-trump-rally-using-purple-rain.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt878c2d524ec5daa3/698a042409208f1281415aaa/prince-estate-slams-trump-rally-using-purple-rain.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Prince Live In LA","caption":"Prince Live In LA","creditText":"Michael Ochs Archives—This content is subject to copyright.","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5698383/prince-estate-condemns-donald-trump-rally-using-purple-rain/","name":"Prince Estate Slams Trump For Playing 'Purple Rain' at a Campaign Rally in Minneapolis"}}]}] ```