President Donald Trump filed a US$15 billion defamation lawsuit against The New York Times, accusing the paper of serving as a “mouthpiece” for the Democrats and pitting himself against one of the world’s oldest and most prominent news organisations.
In the lawsuit, Trump criticised the Times’ “deranged” endorsement of former presidential candidate Kamala Harris in the 2024 election, saying it was featured prominently on the paper’s front page and included a “hyperbolic” opening line that it’s “hard to imagine a candidate more unworthy to serve as president of the United States than Donald Trump.”
In a Truth Social post announcing the suit, Trump accused the paper of a “decades long method of lying about your Favorite President (ME!), my family, business, the America First Movement, MAGA, and our Nation as a whole.”
The amount he’s seeking exceeds the market capitalisation of The New York Times Co, which currently stands at about US$9.65 billion.
The New York Times said in a statement that the lawsuit “has no merit.”
“It lacks any legitimate legal claims and instead is an attempt to stifle and discourage independent reporting,” a spokesperson for the Times said Tuesday. “The New York Times will not be deterred by intimidation tactics.”
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The case, filed in federal court in Tampa, Florida, cites the Times’ news and opinion articles as well as the 2024 book Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father’s Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success, written by two of the paper’s reporters.
“The Book and Articles are part of a decades-long pattern by the New York Times of intentional and malicious defamation against President Trump,” according to the lawsuit. “Defendants simply ignored their breach of journalistic ethics because the Book and the Articles would further the goals of the New York Times and its backers in the Democrat Party.”
In addition to the newspaper company, defendants include reporters Susanne Craig, Russ Buettner, Peter Baker and Michael S. Schmidt, as well as publisher Penguin Random House LLC.
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The filing describes the Times editorial approach as “one of industrial-scale defamation and libel against political opponents.”
Penguin Random House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Media Lawsuits
The case adds to Trump’s running battles with the press. In July, he sued Dow Jones & Co, News Corp and Rupert Murdoch for libel, seeking US$10 billion in damages after the Wall Street Journal published a story alleging that Trump once sent a suggestive birthday letter to Jeffrey Epstein. House Democrats later released the alleged birthday note as part of a trove of documents received by the House Oversight Committee.
Trump reached a settlement with Paramount Global in July over a lawsuit tied to CBS News network’s 60 Minutes interview with then-Vice President Harris. In December, ABC agreed to give US$15 million to Trump’s future presidential foundation or museum to resolve a separate defamation claim.
But Trump has also faced setbacks, including a Manhattan judge’s dismissal of his suit against journalist Bob Woodward and a publishing house over the release of interview recordings from his first term in office.
In 2009, when Trump was still a real estate developer, he lost his bid for US$5 billion in libel damages from Timothy O’Brien, who was an editor at the Times and published a 2005 book questioning Trump’s billionaire status. O’Brien now oversees opinion columns for Bloomberg News.
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‘Powerful People to Account’
After Trump criticized Times reporters in March, the newspaper said Trump’s approach has “never caused us to back down from our mission of holding powerful people to account, regardless of which party is in office,” it said at the time in a post on X.
Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger said in May that the paper will cover the Trump administration “fully and fairly, regardless of what attacks it sends our way.”
Trump has a history of suing the media over unfavourable coverage. Under the 1964 Supreme Court case New York Times v. Sullivan, public figures such as Trump have a higher burden to prove libel: That the defendant knew that the statement was false or was reckless. Trump and other conservative activists have urged the Supreme Court to reconsider that decision.
Trump referenced the Paramount and ABC settlements in his latest post, claiming “longterm INTENT and pattern of abuse, which is both unacceptable and illegal.”
“The New York Times has been allowed to freely lie, smear, and defame me for far too long, and that stops, NOW!” Trump said.
The case is Trump v. New York Times Company, 8:25-cv-02487, U.S. District Court, Middle District of Florida (Tampa).
