President Donald Trump filed a $15 billion defamation lawsuit against The New York Times Company, four of its reporters, and Penguin Random House in the US District Court for the Middle District of Florida, related to the last 2024 US presidential election.
“On November 5, 2024, President Trump won the 2024 Presidential Election over Vice President Kamala Harris in historic fashion… This victory was remarkable for many historic reasons, including because President Trump had to overcome persistent election interference from the legacy media, led most notoriously by the New York Times,” the complaint begins.
The complaint further claims that as Trump “secured the greatest personal and political achievement in American history” in said election because Americans “saw the truth about him,” the news company allegedly “refused to recognize [the truth] as it continued spreading false and defamatory content about President Trump.”
The defendants are New York Times Company; reporters Susanne Craig, Russ Buettner, Peter Baker, and Michael S. Schmidt; and Penguin Random House. The complaint demands for a jury trial.
“Actual malice”
The suit focuses on one book and three articles: Lucky Loser written by Craig and Buettner and published by Penguin; Craig and Buettner’s Sept. 14, 2024 article, “The Star-Making Machine That Created ‘Donald Trump’”; Baker’s Oct. 20, 2024 article, “For Trump, a Lifetime of Scandals Heads Toward a Moment of Judgment”; and Schmidt’s Oct. 22, 2024 article, “As Election Nears, Kelly Warns Trump Would Rule Like a Dictator.”
Plaintiffs say the book and articles were published with “actual malice, contain false statements of fact, and were timed for maximum pre-election impact.”
“Since 2015… the New York Times has made it abundantly clear that it has no intention of engaging in accurate reporting about President Trump,” the complaint wrote.
Some of the alleged defamatory statements that the Trump camp identified include:
- The Craig-Buettner materials stated that by the early 2000s Trump “had received the equivalent of more than $400 million” from his father “through fraudulent tax-evasion schemes,” and that “going bankrupt” made him more valuable as a reality-TV brand.
- These also cite claims that he “sold his father’s empire… for roughly $250 million less than it was worth,” that product placement on The Apprentice functioned as a “second inheritance,” and that a “windfall” came from “becoming a television celebrity” rather than business performance.
- The Baker article recounted Trump’s niece Mary Trump’s claim that “The future president paid a friend to take the SAT for him,” and a line that “Federal, state and local authorities looked into his ties with the Mafia, found violations of money laundering rules and penalized him for skirting stock trade rules.”
- The same article also alleged that Trump “stole medals from a veteran he admired, Walter Simmons.”
- The Schmidt article brought up allegations ascribed to former chief of staff John Kelly that Trump “had made admiring statements about Hitler… [and called] those who died on the battlefield… ‘losers’ and ‘suckers’,” and alleges the Times knew those claims were “discredited.”
Trump brings two counts: defamation per se and defamation per quod against all defendants, asking the court for compensatory damages “not less than $15 billion” plus punitive damages.
The complaint also cited Trump’s recent media-litigation outcomes: $15 million settlement (plus $1 million in fees) with ABC News and a $16 million settlement with Paramount/CBS 60 Minutes with an additional $20 million in advertising/programming.
This is not the first time Trump and New York Times have been in a legal skirmish. In 2021, Trump initiated legal proceedings against the news firm, alleging a conspiracy between the paper and Mary Trump to acquire and publish his tax records. Trump was directed by a New York State judge to pay the firm approximately $400,000 to cover legal fees, as well as three of its reporters and his niece in connection with that case.
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