According to stereogum.com, back in 2020, Village People approved Donald Trump playing their music at his rallies, then changed their minds. Today, Victor Willis of the Village People went on Facebook to thank Trump for his campaign’s use of “Y.M.C.A.” In his Facebook post, the artist expanded on why he let Trump use “Y.M.C.A.”: “To Village People fans and the media:I am the singer and writer of the lyrics to the hit Y.M.C.A. In fact, as was adjudicated and ruled in a U.S. District Court, I wrote 100% of the lyrics, and my writing partner, Jacques Morali wrote the music.”

Willis adds: “Since 2020, I’ve received over a thousand complaints about President Elect Trump’s use of Y.M.C.A. With that many complaints, I decided to ask the President Elect to stop using Y.M.C.A. because his use had become a nuisance to me. However, the use continued because the Trump campaign knew they had obtained a political use license from BMI and absent that license being terminated, they had every right to continue using Y.M.C.A. And they did. In fact, I started noticing numerous artists withdrawing the President Elect’s use of their material. But by the time I said to my wife one day, hey, ‘Trump’ seems to genuinely like Y.M.C.A. and he’s having a lot of fun with it.”

Back in October, Willis told Billboard that Trump was “legally entitled” to use the song “because he took the time to apply for a political use license, which was granted by my performance rights organization, BMI.” said Willis. The artist also clarified that he supported Kamala Harris but that he does not dislike Trump.