Trump files USD15b defamation lawsuit against the New York Times
Make us a preferred source
Make us a preferred source on Google
The news: US President Donald Trump has filed a defamation and libel lawsuit against the New York Times (NYT), accusing the masthead of being a “mouthpiece” for the Democratic party and is seeking USD15 billion ($22.5 billion) in damages.
The numbers: The USD15 billion Trump is seeking is larger than the market capitalisation of The New York Times Co., which currently sits at around USD9.65 billion.
The context: In a filing to the US district court in Florida submitted late on Monday, Trump’s lawyers accuse the NYT of “spreading false and defamatory content” about the president. “The Times has betrayed the journalistic ideals of honesty, objectivity, and accuracy that it once professed,” the filing reads.
Trump’s lawyers criticise the NYT’s “deranged” endorsement of former presidential candidate Kamala Harris in the 2024 election, adding that the paper offered prominent features of Harris and included a “hyperbolic” sentence that said it’s “hard to imagine a candidate more unworthy to serve as president of the United States than Donald Trump.”
Announcing the lawsuit via social media, Trump said he views the NYT’s support of Harris as “the single largest illegal Campaign contribution, EVER…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.”
As part of the lawsuit, Trump is also suing four NYT reporters and publisher Penguin Random House. The lawsuit cites a series of NYT articles as well as a 2024 book published by Penguin titled “Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father's Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success.”
The filing argues that the publications have harmed Trump’s business and personal reputation, causing economic damage to his brand value and his future financial prospects.
The sources: FT, Bloomberg, Reuters, Trump Truth Social
