Footage of André Rieu, Emma Kok used without consent in pro-Trump video posted by Musk

Footage of André Rieu and Emma Kok during a performance was used without their permission in a promotional video for Donald Trump posted by Elon Musk on his own platform X, formerly Twitter. Rieu’s son called the content of the video “disgusting” and stressed that neither of the Dutch artists condoned it.

Emma Kok, a 16-year-old violinist and singer, and violinist and conductor André Rieu appear about three seconds into the video. Kok starts singing, but the sound edited onto the video is not her song.

The video portrays Trump as a superhero, a boxing legend, and a gladiator. It includes fragments of his speeches in which he threatened violence if violence is used against Americans. The video also includes a speech by Musk.

Pierre Rieu, André Rieu’s son, called the video “disgusting,” speaking to AD. “Texts like ‘if you spill a drop of American blood, we will spill a gallon of yours’ are horrible and violent,’ he said. Rieu stressed that no one contacted his father or Kok’s teams to ask permission to use the footage.

The artists have decided against taking any steps because “the less attention, the faster this will be over,” Rieu said to the newspaper. They hope the video will quickly be forgotten. “Luckily, that man is very active on X and posts a lot, so this will quickly sink on his timeline.”