Mugshot Merch Money = Another Trump Loss

Remember the Donald Trump mugshot in Georgia that he turned into a multi-million-dollar cash cow for himself via T-shirts and other merchandise? Well, it looks like ‘The Donald’ may be forced to forfeit all that mugshot merch money ASAP!

Current Events :
Donald Trump’s historic mugshot on August 24th at the Fulton County Jailhouse became a MAGA “must have” item almost immediately. After all, Trump’s scowling facial expression combined with his “f*ck you” demeanor in the photo was just the souvenir his sycophants craved.  

That same evening, the Trump Save America Joint Fundraising Committee began selling T-shirts, coffee mugs, beverage coolers, bumper stickers, and other merchandise emblazoned with the Trump mugshot and the slogan “Never Surrender.” Bumper stickers were sold for $12 a pop, $25 for coffee mugs, beverage coolers cost $15, and T-shirts were sold for $36. To help the mugshot merch sales, Trump even sent out a fundraising email, telling supporters he “walked into the lion’s den with one simple message on behalf of our entire movement: I Will ‘Never Surrender’ Our Mission To Save America.”

POLITICO is reporting that as of last week alone, the mugshot merch raised $7.1 million for Trump — money that he will certainly use to hide his debts and continue to fund his lavish lifestyle.

Oh, but not so fast. It looks like Trump may lose every single cent of his mugshot merch money on a technicality.

According to a 2022 article in the University of Georgia School of Law’s Journal of Intellectual Property Law: “In the context of photographs taken by law enforcement during the booking process, the author of the mugshot photograph is the law enforcement agency.” Or, in other words, the State of Georgia owns the rights to the Donald Trump mugshot — which means that all monies he raised using property that legally belongs to Georgia must be surrendered to the state.

Oops!

Yes, generally speaking, the subject in a photograph is usually the rightful owner of the copyright of the image. However, in the case of government images, including court photos and mugshots, the copyright does indeed belong to the government no matter who is in the photo.  

Just because the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office publicly released the Trump mugshot doesn’t relinquish its rights or give anyone permission to use the image for their own profit.

Needless to say, Fulton County Sheriff Pat LaBat is already preparing to claim Trump’s mugshot merch profits — and he couldn’t be happier about the timing since Fulton County “just happens to be in desperate need of funds to address the horrific conditions in the Fulton County Jail.” 

So, too bad for him but all that Trump time and effort appears to have been for nothing. Yes, he will get nothing.

Interestingly, if Trump doesn’t hand over every dollar he’s raised, LaBat could sue ‘The Donald’ for copyright infringement. Trump would then be forced to either cease and desist all sales of the mugshot merch and destroy all unsold merchandise, or continue making and selling it but giving every dollar of profit to Georgia. He could also be forced to pay a penalty for infringing on someone else’s copyright, effectively losing money from his cash-grab scheme.

Womp! Womp!

OK WASSUP! covers Current Events:
Trump to lose mugshot merch profits.