This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

First it was Game of Thrones, now it’s Batman – and in both cases it seemed the joke ended up being on Donald Trump.

On Tuesday night, Warner Bros launched legal action against the president after he retweeted a video that featured music from The Dark Knight Rises Batman movie.

Trump posted a fan-made, two-minute video for his 2020 re-election campaign that featured Hans Zimmer’s Why Do We Fall? from the 2012 film.

It also featured the font used in the film’s title cards and the words:

“First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they call you a racist. Donald J Trump. Your vote. Proved them all wrong. Trump: The Great Victory. 2020,” as pictures of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton flashed up – a Mahatma Gandhi misquote that the Trump campaign itself has previously employed and been pulled up for.

Warner Brothers, which owns the Batman franchise, noticed the post, which was generating a lot of online traffic.

The tweet was still available for several hours following Warner Bros’ decision to take legal action, but according to a report in Variety magazine, the video had been replaced by a message stating: “This video has been removed in response to a report from the copyright holder.”

Trump had captioned it: “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

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

Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! pic.twitter.com/diXWQHuyGj

By Wednesday afternoon, Trump’s whole tweet had been deleted.

Trump has previously used pop culture references to promote his presidency. During heightened tensions with Iran, he used a Game Of Thrones-style poster bearing the slogan “sanctions are coming”, a reference to the television series’ phrase “winter is coming”. He also used the same idea with a “The Wall is coming” poster to promote his long-hyped plan to build a wall on the US-Mexico border.

As the Guardian pointed out at the time, most people know that the Game of Thrones catchline “winter is coming” is a dire warning that the world is on the brink of apocalyptic climate change, and that people should work together in union rather than indulge in petty power squabbles. So, in essence, “winter” is the exact scientific opposite of “sanctions”, or walls.

The wall is coming: Trump becomes world's worst Game of Thrones fan Read more

The president is also no stranger to artists asking him to stop using their music. Prince, Pharrell Williams and the Rolling Stones have all taken issue with the president playing their songs at campaign rallies.