Trump campaign sued over bald eagle photo

Two wildlife photographers are suing Donald Trump’s presidential campaign for using a photo they took of a bald eagle.

Robert Rozinski and Wendy Shattil allege Trump’s team is using their image of the all-American bird on campaign merchandise without their permission, according to The New York Daily News.

{mosads}“In 1980, Rozinski created ‘Bald Eagle Portrait,’ an iconic photographic image of a bald eagle,” their claim states. “The photograph captures a piercing, intimate, eye-to-eye moment with this majestic creature with near-perfect symmetry against a flawless sky blue background.

“It would be difficult, as perhaps an understatement, to recreate such an image given the challenge of replicating and capturing such a fleeting moment in nature,” the suit adds.

“That Rozinski captured the moment at all is remarkable considering that when created, the American bald eagle faced extirpation in North America due to poisonous DDT pesticide use, among other factors.”

The suit, filed in Manhattan, says the campaign’s use of the “bald eagle specimen is deliberate” and intended to portray “the direct and unflinching persona that Mr. Trump seeks to project to the American public.”

Rozinski and Shattil noticed the alleged copyright infringement during media coverage of February’s New Hampshire primary, according to the Daily News report.

The suit also says some Trump campaign yard signs bear the image alongside the billionaire’s “Make America Great Again” slogan.

The lawsuit is not the first time Trump has ruffled feathers promoting his White House run with a bald eagle.

Time magazine mocked Trump late last year by posting outtakes of a photoshoot where one of the birds of prey startleed the New York business mogul.

Trump had slammed the news magazine for passing him over for its 2015 “Person of the Year,” arguing it “mentally” couldn’t award him the honor despite deserving it.

Trump posed with a bald eagle named “Uncle Sam” last August, appearing in a now-iconic Time cover shoot that documented his rise to GOP front-runner.