Warner Bros. Shut Down Trump’s 2020 Video For Using The “Dark Knight Rises” Score

After Trump posted the video on Twitter, people quickly began pointing out that the music is from Hans Zimmer's score for the Batman movie.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday posted a video on Twitter that appeared to be part of his 2020 reelection campaign. In less than three hours, it had already amassed over 1 million views, but by late Tuesday night, the video was no longer available.

BuzzFeed News has learned that Warner Bros. Pictures filed a copyright infringement complaint to have the video taken down because it uses part of the score from the studio's 2012 film The Dark Knight Rises.

In a statement Tuesday night, Warner Bros. confirmed it was taking action over the video.

"The use of Warner Bros.’ score from The Dark Knight Rises in the campaign video was unauthorized," a spokesperson said. "We are working through the appropriate legal channels to have it removed.”

By late Tuesday night, the video in Trump's tweet had been replaced by a message that it was no longer available "in response to a report by the copyright owner."

The roughly two-minute video juxtaposes brief shots of prominent Democrats — from Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton to comedians Rosie O'Donnell and Amy Schumer — against images of Trump from his first two years in office, including his meetings with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un and Brazil's far-right president Jair Bolsonaro.

Dramatic text exclaims: "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they call you racist." There is no dialogue — instead, a driving, dramatic score plays underneath everything, crescendoing just as Trump raises his fist into the air.

After Trump posted the video on Tuesday afternoon, people quickly began pointing out that the music is from Hans Zimmer's score for The Dark Knight Rises, specifically the track "Why Do We Fall."

View this video on YouTube

youtube.com

This White House video is set to the Dark Knight Rises soundtrack by Hans Zimmer https://t.co/B0fwzftWMf

...wait, did they use the actual DARK KNIGHT music? https://t.co/yl0yqFiW3d

.@HansZimmer are you aware that Trump is using your composition from The Dark Knight as soundtrack for his hate-mongering presidential movie trailers? cc: @warnerbrosr https://t.co/5Vohm0iFKF

The video appears to be lifted from a YouTube video posted to a Reddit thread on /r/The_Donald. The video by MateyProductions cites Zimmer's score, but it's unclear if permission to use it was obtained.

Warner Bros. is a subsidiary of WarnerMedia, which was recently acquired by AT&T after the Justice Department failed in its attempt to block the merger, one of Trump's 2016 campaign promises.

The White House did not respond to BuzzFeed News' request for comment.

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