Matt Damon and Ben Affleck insult Donald Trump for using movie speech in campaign ad

Actors Matt Damon and Ben Affleck have ripped 2024 Republican frontrunner Donald Trump for using a speech from their recent film in a campaign ad without express permission.

The former president posted a video to his Truth Social Saturday, featuring Damon’s monologue as Nike marketing and sales representative Sonny Vaccaro in the Affleck-directed film Air.

It shows Trump getting off planes and greeting supporters as Damon says, “Money can buy almost anything. You can’t buy immortality with it, you have to earn it.’

Damon then talks about facing adversity as those who once supported you try to tear you down in the film about Nike’s partnership with Michael Jordan, which Trump took advantage of for his new campaign ad, complete with an AI-generated image of him kneeling in prayer.

But Damon and Affleck’s production company says the Trump campaign never approached them for permission to use the speech and is now banning the 2024 candidate from using any film footage.

The video Trump posted on Saturday features several photos and scenes from the former president’s childhood, as Damon says, “I’m going to look you in the eye and I’m going to tell you the future.”

“It’s an American story, and that’s why Americans will love it.”

It then cuts to footage from Trump’s first campaign as president on Damon, saying, “People are going to build you up, God are they going to, because when you’re great and new, we love you.”

“Man, we’re building you into something that doesn’t even exist; you are going to change the f****** world.

‘But you know what? Once they build you as high as they can, they’ll knock you down again,” Damon said as the screen cuts to newsreel footage of the Trump indictment and the Mar-a-Lago raid when the FBI found classified documents on his estate in Florida.

“It’s the most predictable pattern, we’re building you into something that doesn’t exist and that means you have to be that thing all day, every day,” Damon added in the film. ‘That’s how it works, and we’ll do it again, and again, and again.

“And I’m going to tell you the truth: You’re going to be attacked, betrayed, exposed, and humiliated,” he continued as the video cut to show New York Attorney General Letitia James, Senator Mitch McConnell, and New York courts.

“And you survive that,” continues the speech, which shows Trump with Secret Service agents.

‘Many people can climb that mountain; it’s the way down that breaks them, because that’s when you’re really alone and then what are you going to do?’

Can you muster the will to fight through all the pain and get back up? That will be the defining question of your life,” the video continues, featuring an AI-generated image of Trump praying, his right knee directly behind his left foot.

The commercial then cuts to footage from Trump’s 2024 campaign, as Damon says, “And I think you already know the answer, which is why we’re all here.”

He reveals that Damon actually speaks in character in the film, continuing, “A shoe is just a shoe until someone steps into it. Then it has meaning.

“The rest of us just want to touch that greatness.

“We need you in these shoes, not so that you like life, but so that we like ours.”

He concludes: ‘Everyone will be forgotten when our time here is up. Except you, you will be forever remembered because some things are eternal – and your story will make us fight and never give up.’

The video then dissolves into a crowd at one of Trump’s rallies chanting “USA, USA” before displaying a donation screen with the phrase “Make America Great Again.”

It has been shared more than 10,700 times on Trump’s social media site and has garnered more than 34,000 likes.

But after the video was posted, a spokesperson for Artists Equity, Damon and Affleck’s production company, told the Daily beast the Trump campaign was not authorized to use the monologue.

“We had no prior knowledge of, did not consent to, and did not endorse or approve any footage of Air audio being repurposed by the Trump campaign as a political ad or for any other use,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

“We hereby expressly give notice that in the event of any use of Air materials by the Trump campaign requiring approval or permission, we do not grant such permission.”

Both Damon and Affleck have previously spoken out about their distaste for the former president, with Damon publicly supporting Clinton in 2016.

Just a year later, he called Trump’s response to the Charlottesville, Virginia, riots “absolutely abhorrent.”

Affleck also supported the Democrats in 2020 and criticized Trump as “cheesy” in a 2017 interview with The Guardian.

“You knew you were at a cheesy party when Donald Trump was there,” he said at the time. “He’d drag around it a bit.”

DailyMail.com has reached out to the Trump campaign for comment.

It is not the first time that the former president has come under fire for using copyrighted material.

In 2019, Twitter removed a video Trump posted featuring music from The Dark Knight Rises after Warner Bros. reportedly filed a claim.

It contained ‘Why Do We Fall?’ by composer Hans Zimmer. from the 2012 film and Warner Brothers, owner of the Batman franchise, was not happy.

“Using Warner Bros.” The Dark Knight Rises’ score in the campaign video was unauthorized,” the film studio told Buzzfeed News. “We are working through the proper legal channels to get it removed.”

Just a day later, on Trump’s Twitter feed, all that was left was a dead link with a message that read, “This medium has been disabled in response to a report from the copyright owner.”

Earlier that year, the band REM accused the then president of retweeting a meme appropriating their song Everybody Hurts to fool the Democrats.

The parody, created by Youtuber CarpeDonktum, shows Trump delivering his State of the Union address as the camera cuts to the sulking faces of Democrats watching his speech.

“The a******** @CarpeDonktum made the meme. #PresidentA********** retweeted it. Measures have been taken to stop it. @jack you need to get on this,” band bassist Mike Mills tweeted Friday.

The band’s Twitter page shared a similar post that read, “World Leader PRETEND!!!! Congress, media — ghost this imposter!!! Love, REM’

Their complaints were not ignored, as the video was promptly removed after Mills and the band’s publisher, Universal Music Publishing Group, complained about copyright infringement.