Victor Willis, one of the members of the group Village People, has endorsed President-elect Donald Trump’s public use of the song “Y.M.C.A.,” saying it has brought him great “financial benefits” and threatening to sue news outlets that refer to the song as a “gay anthem.”
In a lengthy post on Facebook on Monday, Willis, who co-wrote the hit 1978 song, explained that he changed his mind about Trump’s use of the song after realizing that Trump “seems to genuinely like Y.M.C.A. and he’s having a lot of fun with it.”
“As such, I simply didn’t have the heart to prevent his continued use of my song in the face of so many artists withdrawing his use of their material,” Willis wrote. Trump has faced legal action from multiple artists over his campaign’s use of songs. Village People’s manager was among those who sent a cease-and-desist letter last year to try to stop him from using the band’s songs at public events.
Willis acknowledged that the song has “benefited greatly” from Trump’s use, including pushing the song to the top of a Billboard chart and leading to an estimated gross of “several million dollars since the President Elect’s continued use of the song.”
The Trump campaign has repeatedly used the song at its rallies, often with Trump himself dancing along to it onstage. More recently, his awkward dance moves have inspired something of a still-more awkward trend, with his supporters and even professional athletes imitating them.








