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Musician Sends Cease-and-Desist Over Trump Ad Using His Song

JMSN's song 'Love Me' was used in a US government-funded ad featuring Donald Trump.

AI-assisted coverage comparison, editor-supervised · How this was made

Published
JMSN Photo by Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images for Usher's New Look Foundation

What this story says

  • Musician JMSN, real name Christian Berishaj, sent a cease-and-desist letter to White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles.
  • The letter objects to the use of his song 'Love Me' in a promotional ad featuring Donald Trump.
  • The ad was paid for using tax dollars and is described by some as campaign propaganda.
  • The letter alleges the song was used without proper clearances and violates federal copyright law.

Who covered it

Left 71%(5)Centre 29%(2)Right 0%(0)

Percentages are shares of the 7 outlets carrying a published leaning rating. Coverage measured .

Trust

60/100

Craft

65/100

Hype

20/100

7 sources · methodology

Thin on the right so far

None of the 7 outlets with a published leaning rating that ran this story are rated right.

This story is still being watched, so it is a count and not yet a finding. Coverage keeps arriving for hours after an event, and a side that has published nothing this morning may publish by tonight. If it is still true when we stop checking, we will say so plainly.

Christian Berishaj, who performs as JMSN, has sent a cease-and-desist letter to White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles. The letter concerns the use of his song 'Love Me' in a promotional advertisement that features Donald Trump. The ad spots are stated to be 'paid for by the U.S. government'.

The letter alleges that the song was used without proper clearances and claims a violation of federal copyright law. Yashar Ali first reported on the cease-and-desist letter, which was sent on a Monday. A White House spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment.

Disagreement on Ad Classification

The White House has described the ad spots as public service announcements. However, Democrats and some Republicans contend that they are campaign propaganda. AdImpact estimates that $1.7 million has been spent to run the spots.

What the coverage left out

None of the left or centre-rated reports mentioned the specific amount of $1.7 million spent on the ad spots, which was reported by Deadline and attributed to AdImpact estimates.

Still developing. We have re-checked which outlets are covering this 3 times, most recently on 29 Sept 2026, 19:45, and will add the sides that appear.

How each side covered it

Our own reading of the reporting listed below, written from the outlets’ articles rather than quoted from them. The reasoning is set out on our methodology page.

Left

5 rated outlets

  • Left-rated reports led with the cease-and-desist letter sent by JMSN to the White House. They highlighted that the song 'Love Me' was used in a promotional ad featuring Donald Trump. These reports stated the ad was paid for using tax dollars and described it as campaign propaganda. The allegations of copyright law violation and lack of proper clearance were also prominent. Deadline quoted Norm Eisen of Democracy Defenders Action, who wrote in the letter that 'JMSN does not want to be viewed as directly or indirectly affiliated with the President or his Administration' and that he 'would never authorize [his] music to be used for ANY political agenda or campaign.'

Centre

2 rated outlets

  • The centre-rated report led with the artist demanding the White House stop using his song in a taxpayer-funded ad. It noted that attorneys for JMSN stated the use of the song was a violation of federal copyright law and demanded the ad be withdrawn. The report mentioned the song featured in a recent ad promoting President Donald Trump.

Right

0 rated outlets

No outlet rated right has run this story so far. We are still checking, and will say plainly if that does not change.

Questions about this coverage

How did the left and right cover Musician Sends Cease-and-Desist Over Trump Ad Using His Song?
Of the 7 outlets on this story carrying a published leaning rating, 71% are rated left, 29% are rated centre, 0% are rated right. Those percentages are shares of the rated outlets, not of every outlet that ran it. The sections above set out what each side emphasised, in its own terms.
Is Musician Sends Cease-and-Desist Over Trump Ad Using His Song left or right?
Too few of the outlets on this story carry a published leaning rating to say. 7 of them do, and this site does not characterise a field under 12: at that size one newsroom filing moves the share by ten points. The percentages above are the count as it stands.
Is the coverage of Musician Sends Cease-and-Desist Over Trump Ad Using His Song biased?
Musician Sends Cease-and-Desist Over Trump Ad Using His Song is one event reported by 7 outlets, and this page does not rate the story as biased or unbiased. What it publishes is the spread: which outlets ran it, where named rating organisations place each of them on the spectrum, and what each side chose to lead with. A leaning rating describes an outlet's record over time, not this article, and the two should not be run together.
Which side is not reporting Musician Sends Cease-and-Desist Over Trump Ad Using His Song?
When we first saw this story, outlets rated right had barely covered it. Coverage accretes for hours after an event, so that is where to look rather than a verdict — the split above is the current count, and it is the one to read.
Which outlets covered Musician Sends Cease-and-Desist Over Trump Ad Using His Song?
7 that we know of, every one of them listed further up this page with a link to its own report and to what we hold on the publisher. Nothing here is a summary of somebody else's summary: the outlets are named so the original reporting can be read.
Who sent the cease-and-desist letter and to whom?
The musician JMSN, whose real name is Christian Berishaj, sent a cease-and-desist letter to White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles. The letter was sent on a Monday and objects to the use of his song 'Love Me' in a promotional ad featuring Donald Trump.
What is the objection to the Trump ad?
The objection is that JMSN's song 'Love Me' was used in a promotional ad featuring Donald Trump without proper clearances. The letter alleges this violates federal copyright law and that the musician does not want to be affiliated with the President or his administration.
How was the ad paid for and what is it described as?
The ad spots are stated to be 'paid for by the U.S. government' using tax dollars. While the White House described them as public service announcements, Democrats and some Republicans contend they are campaign propaganda.

Read it at the source

7 outlets, grouped by the leaning a published rating gives them. Every headline links to the original; an underlined outlet name opens our profile of that publisher.

How did this read?

About the coverage, not about the story. We do not ask whether you agree with what happened — we have no honest use for that answer.

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