US President Donald Trump sued the New York Times, four of its reporters and publisher Penguin Random House for at least $15 billion on Monday, claiming defamation and libel and citing reputational damage, a Florida court filing showed.
Trump has gone after major media outlets, including the Wall Street Journal and Paramount, in his second term for what he describes as false or misleading coverage and has sought billions of dollars in damages from them.
Monday’s suit cites a series of New York Times articles, opens new tab, one an editorial prior to the 2024 presidential election, which said he was unfit for office, and a 2024 book published by Penguin titled “Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father’s Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success”.
“Defendants maliciously published the Book and the Articles knowing that these publications were filled with repugnant distortions and fabrications about President Trump,” according to the filing lodged on Monday in the US District Court for the Middle District of Florida.
Trump also sued the Wall Street Journal and its owners, including Rupert Murdoch, earlier this year for at least $10 billion over the newspaper’s report that his name was on a 2003 birthday greeting for Jeffrey Epstein that included a sexually suggestive drawing and a reference to secrets they shared.
In July, CBS parent company Paramount agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by Trump alleging that the CBS news program “60 Minutes” deceptively edited an interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris that the network broadcast in October.
Trump’s lawyers said in the filing on Monday that the New York Times had harmed Trump’s business and personal reputation, thereby causing massive economic damage to his brand value and significant damage to his future financial prospects.
“The harm to the value of TMTG (Trump Media and Technology Group) stock is one example of how the Defendants’ defamation has injured President Trump,” said his lawyers, citing “a precipitous decline in the stock price.”
TMTG stock has been under pressure in recent months, fuelled by worries about the end of a so-called lock-up period related to its stock market debut in March.
Legal precedent
“This 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 New York Times said.
“The New York Times will not be deterred by intimidation tactics. We will continue to pursue the facts without fear or favor and stand up for journalists’ First Amendment right to ask questions on behalf of the American people.”
Penguin Random House did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
In order to win a libel suit in the US, a public figure must demonstrate the offending statement was made with “actual malice,” meaning with knowledge it was false or with reckless disregard as to whether it was false.
This defamation protection standard was established by the US Supreme Court in its landmark 1964 ruling in the case New York Times v. Sullivan — which Trump has often criticised as too protective of the news media.
The Supreme Court in recent years has turned away opportunities to revisit it.
NYT faces repeated Trump ire
The filing comes after Trump threatened last week to sue the New York Times for its reporting on an allegedly sexually suggestive note and drawing given to Epstein.
Epstein, the disgraced financier and sex offender, died by suicide in a New York jail cell in 2019.
Trump has said he parted ways with Epstein before the financier’s legal troubles became public in 2006.
“Today, I have the Great Honor of bringing a $15 Billion Dollar Defamation and Libel Lawsuit against The New York Times,” Trump said earlier on Monday in a post on his social media platform Truth Social.
In his post, Trump accused the paper of lying about him, his family and businesses, as well as Republican-led movements and ideologies such as the America First Movement, and Make America Great Again, or MAGA.
