Just before midnight on Monday, Donald Trump jumped onto his Truth Social account and announced a $15 billion defamation lawsuit against the New York Times, a handful of reporters and book publisher Penguin Random House that both stunned and amused legal experts.
Trump led off with “Today, I have the Great Honor of bringing a $15 Billion Dollar Defamation and Libel Lawsuit against The New York Times, one of the worst and most degenerate newspapers in the History of our Country, becoming a virtual ‘mouthpiece’ for the Radical Left Democrat Party. “
“I view it as the single largest illegal Campaign contribution, EVER. Their Endorsement of Kamala Harris was actually put dead center on the front page of The New York Times, something heretofore UNHEARD OF! The ‘Times’ has engaged in 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,” he added.
“I am PROUD to hold this once respected “rag” responsible, as we are doing with the Fake News Networks such as our successful litigation against George Slopadopoulos/ABC/Disney, and 60 Minutes/CBS/Paramount, who knew that they were falsely “smearing” me through a highly sophisticated system of document and visual alteration, which was, in effect, a malicious form of defamation, and thus, settled for record amounts. They practiced this longterm INTENT and pattern of abuse, which is both unacceptable and illegal,” he continued before adding, “The New York Times has been allowed to freely lie, smear, and defame me for far too long, and that stops, NOW! The suit is being brought in the Great State of Florida. Thank you for your attention to this matter. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
Politico's Kyle Cheney pointed, "JUST IN: Trump launches a $15 billion lawsuit against the New York Times — naming reporters Peter Baker, Michael Schmidt, Susanne Craig and Russ Buettner — because he doesn't like what they have written/reported about him."
As for reactions, on Bluesky, attorney Ken White was taken aback by the over-the-top assertions by Trump’s three lawyers who made the filing in Florida, and wrote, “This is a stunningly pathological lawsuit even by Trumpian standards. It reads as if he was holding a gun to the head of the child of the lawyer drafting it.”
Conservative attorney George Conway joked, "Is it possible for a legal pleading to be psychotic? I think we have an answer."
NPR reporter Bobby Alllyn reported that the Times had preemptively responded, writing, “NYT attorney David McCraw told Trump lawyers before they sued that their legal claims amounted to ‘a litany of personal complaints’ about the NYT premised on ‘the deeply troubling notion that anyone who dares to report unfavorable facts about a presidential candidate is engaged in ‘sabotage’.”
California State Senator Scott Weiner (D) chipped in, “He’s not even pretending to have an actual defamation claim. He’s just mad they didn’t endorse him, to the tune of $15 billion.”
You can see Trump’s post here.
