Cartoonist says Trump threatened legal action; lawyer says not true

President Donald Trump was in Atlanta recently for the NRA convention. AJC photo: Hyosub Shin

Credit: Jennifer Brett

Credit: Jennifer Brett

President Donald Trump was in Atlanta recently for the NRA convention. AJC photo: Hyosub Shin

Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist Guy Berkeley Breathed, creator of the syndicated "Bloom County" strip, posted legal documents on his official, verified Facebook page indicating President Donald Trump's representatives threatened legal action after the cartoonist posted images of the commander-in-chief.

Not so, the POTUS' legal rep says.

".. while Mr. Trump is the nation’s chief executive and thereby a public figure, he retains the rights to both his and his family’s image for the purposes of commercial exploitation and promotion," the letter Breathed posted read.

Breathed posted the letter he says he sent in response, agreeing to take down whatever images the president was mad about.

“We enjoy having a little ‘fun’ with famous people but we agree with the President that while it’s a good time to make America great again, it’s not a good time to be sued,” he wrote.

But a Trump lawyer says the whole thing is, as the president might say, fake news.

"A fraud," he tells BuzzFeed.

Trump did sue a novelty vendor who made pens using his image, according to a column pen salesman Jay Kamhi wrote for the Washington Post .

"U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials immediately confiscated the pens for trademark violation. I was told that unless I obtained Trump's written permission, the pens would be destroyed," the column, titled "Donald Trump was my hero. Until I tried to sell talking Trump novelty pens," read.

He also sued a Georgia-based company that sold a line of playing cards called "Trump Cards," Mother Jones reported .

"Donald Trump simply wants to own the word 'trump,' and anybody who wants anything to do with it will have to face Donald Trump," the card company's lawyer said at the time. "We can't give up a word in the English language just because somebody has the power and money to do so."

Breathed's most recent comment on the matter is simply "moving on." Here are the documents he posted:

Either way, First Lady could be in for a new stuffed toy.

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