In the past three decades, former President Donald Trump has been involved in 4,095 lawsuits; 85 of those have been branding and trademark cases.

Now, Trump is suing Bob Woodward for releasing an audiobook titled “The Trump Tapes: Bob Woodward’s Twenty Interviews with President Donald Trump.” 

Trump and his team are claiming that Simon & Schuster Inc. (SSI), Paramount Global and Woodward purposefully exploited, manipulated and capitalized on Trump’s voice claiming that he is one of the most recognizable people in the world. 

By doing so, they have “unlawfully usurped President Trump’s copyright interests, his contractual rights and the rights he holds as an interviewee” and “caused President Trump to sustain substantial damages, necessitating the institution of action.”

This whole debacle started because “Rage,” the print book version of the “Trump Tapes,” was published. 

Starting in 2019, Woodward did a series of interviews with Trump which were recorded. Trump had given consent for Woodward to record and knew that Woodward had been working on a book.

All this is fine and good. Woodward is a seasoned investigative reporter; I couldn’t imagine he would have infringed on the two-way consent law. 

The problem arises (in Trump’s eyes) with the audiobook. According to his legal team, he only agreed to be recorded for the book. 

One of the pieces of the legal team’s argument is that when you go to SSI’s website to purchase the audiobook, Trump was listed as a narrator. I guess they’re saying this would imply that Trump consented to be in the AUDIObook, not just the print book. 

In some way, I understand where he’s coming from. The thing is, this has nothing to do with Trump saying he’s cool with an audiobook. 

Trump’s legal team provides a lengthy list of all of the works Trump published in his lifetime. They bring up his book “Our Journey Together” and how it was published through Winning Team Publishing and was highly successful.

Funny enough, Donald Trump  Jr. is a co-founder of Winning Team … and it seems the only books published under them are by Trump ² (Trump and Trump Jr.)   and one by Charlie Kirk. 

Also, “Our Journey Together” is a photobook; how is that comparable to “Rage”? 

Trump’s legal team calls “Rage” a “complete and total failure,” claiming Woodward was hoping to replicate the success of his previous book “Fear” by publishing Trump’s voice.

In the first week after publishing, “Rage” sold over 600,000 copies. I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t sound like a complete and total failure.

We’ve seen this all before. Trump calls damage to his reputation, sues “the media” and uses the press coverage to push his anti-liberal agenda. This has nothing to do with copyright laws or the fact that Woodward published his voice. 

Woodward has been around the block when it comes to fame- and money-hungry politicians. This case will be nothing but a blip on his radar. I imagine the most that will come out of this is a settlement (if that). 

Trump is up against a seasoned investigative journalist, someone who helped take down former President Nixon and break the Watergate case. That’s no easy feat, especially not for someone making a weak case for clout and a leg up on the presidential campaign trail. 

I think this just solidifies how volatile and manipulative this man is. Even bad press is press after all. 

Over 4,000 lawsuits later, it’s clear that Trump isn’t going to stop complaining. Maybe it’s time we stop caring.