President Donald Trump announced Monday that he has filed a $15 billion defamation lawsuit against the New York Times, saying that the paper has served as a “mouthpiece” for the Democratic Party and illegally aided Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign last year.
“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,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.
“I view it as the single largest illegal Campaign contribution, EVER,” Trump went on. “Their Endorsement of Kamala Harris was actually put dead center on the front page of The New York Times, something heretofore UNHEARD OF!”
The lawsuit, filed Monday at a U.S. District Court in Florida, accuses the Times of making “numerous malicious, defamatory, and disparaging claims about President Trump based on distortion and fabrication.” Trump has had to overcome “persistent election interference from the legacy media” led by the Times, according to the lawsuit.
Trump’s legal team said that several Times articles and a book by two reporters named in the suit were “specifically designed to try and damage President Trump’s business, personal and political reputation,” arguing that materials were published with “actual malice” toward Trump and resulted in “enormous” financial and professional harm.
“The New York Times has been allowed to freely lie, smear, and defame me for far too long, and that stops, NOW!” Trump said in his Truth Social post.
The Monday lawsuit marks Trump’s latest legal action against mainstream media outlets. In July, CBS News parent company Paramount agreed to pay Trump $16 million to settle his lawsuit over the network’s deceptive editing of a Harris interview. Last year, ABC News also agreed to pay $16 million to resolve a defamation lawsuit that Trump filed against anchor George Stephanopoulos, who falsely claimed on air that Trump had been found “liable for rape.”
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