Donald Trump has reached a settlement with Eddy Grant over how much the president-elect must pay for using “Electric Avenue” without permission in a 2020 campaign video.
Two months after a federal judge ruled that Trump infringed the copyright to the 1982 hit by featuring it in the video, the same judge issued an order Wednesday saying the two sides had “settled this action” and that the case would be “discontinued.”
The settlement avoids the need for further litigation figure out how much Trump would need to pay Grant in damages, which had been left undecided by the September ruling. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed in court filings, and neither side immediately responded to request for comment.
Grant sued Trump in 2020 after the then-president used his 1982 hit in a social media video attacking Joe Biden. Grant said he reacted with “dismay” when he began receiving inquiries asking if he had approved the Republican candidate’s use of his music.
Trump’s lawyers argued back that the video was shielded under copyright’s fair use doctrine, which allows for the “transformative” re-use of protected works in certain situations. But in September’s ruling, Judge John G. Koeltl sharply rejected that argument.
“In this case, the video has a very low degree of transformativeness, if any at all,” the judge wrote. “The video is best described as a wholesale copying of music to accompany a political campaign ad.”
Trump repeatedly faced blowback during the 2024 election from artists who don’t want him to use their music. Beyoncé, Celine Dion, the Foo Fighters, ABBA and Sinead O’Connor‘s estate have all spoken out or threatened action, and the White Stripes and the estate of Isaac Hayes have both filed lawsuits against him and his campaign.
Four years earlier, Grant filed a similar case over Trump’s “wrongful and willful” use of “Electric Avenue,” a funky, reggae-infused track about the 1981 Brixton riot, named for a road running through that London neighborhood. The song reached No. 2 on the Hot 100 in the summer of 1983 and ultimately spent 22 weeks on the chart.
The video at issue, shared by Trump on X, featured a red “Trump” train outrunning a handcar driven by Biden, as audio clips of Biden’s speeches played above Grant’s 1982 hit. Grant’s attorneys said the campaign had refused to remove the clip even after they were warned — meaning that Trump was acting as if he was “above the law.”
Trump’s attorneys argued that the video had “transformed Grant’s original conception of ‘Electric Avenue’ as a protest against social conditions into a colorful attack on the character and personality traits of a rival political figure.” But in September’s decision, the judge was entirely unswayed by that defense — saying that it would only count as fair use if Trump had used the song to attack Grant, not Biden.
“The animation does not use ‘Electric Avenue’ as a vehicle to deliver its satirical message, and it makes no effort to poke fun at the song or Grant,” Judge Koeltl wrote, quoting directly from his earlier decision.
The ruling in September held that Trump and his campaign were legally liable for copyright infringement, but it left undecided the amount he would ultimately need pay Grant in damages.
