Trump loses $50M suit against iconic Watergate journalist

Donald Trump must add one more defeat to the long list of lawsuits he has filed in recent months, as a federal judge has just dismissed his $50 million lawsuit against famed Watergate journalist Bob Woodward.

The famed journalist had published the audio of nearly 20 interviews with the president.

— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast.bsky.social) 2025-07-19T21:00:05.724401Z

In 2023, Donald Trump filed a lawsuit against Bob Woodward and the Simon & Schuster publishing house, which in 2022 had published a series of interviews with him in audiobook form entitled The Trump Tapes.

Donald Trump argued that these recordings violated his copyright, claiming that he had granted these interviews to Woodward solely for the book Rage, a bestseller released in 2020.

According to The Daily Beast, a federal judge appointed by George W. Bush sided with Bob Woodward, pointing out that Woodward had never agreed to restrictions on the use of the interviews with Trump, which had been conducted transparently and officially recorded.

The judge dismissed the lawsuit, finding that Trump had failed to demonstrate any intent to co-write between himself and Woodward, or that he held any copyright to the audiobook.