Trump's week in review: Sues NY Times, designates Antifa as 'major terrorist organization'

3. Trump announces lawsuit against The New York Times

In a statement posted on Truth Social Tuesday, Trump announced he was filing a $15 billion defamation and libel lawsuit against The New York Times. Denouncing the newspaper as “one of the worst and most degenerate newspapers in the History of our Country” that has become a “mouthpiece” for the Democratic Party, Trump characterized the publication’s reporting 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,” he wrote. “I am PROUD to hold this once respected ‘rag’ responsible.” 

He added, “The New York Times has been allowed to freely lie, smear, and defame me for far too long, and that stops, NOW!”

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, names The New York Times as well as reporters Susanne Craig, Russ Buettner, Peter Baker and Michael Schmidt and the publishing company Penguin Random House as defendants. 

Craig and Buettner were singled out for writing a book titled, Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father’s Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success, which was published by Penguin Random House seven weeks before the 2024 presidential election.

Similarly, Baker’s article titled “For Trump, a Lifetime of Scandals Heads Toward a Moment of Judgment,” published in October 2024, was cited as “defamatory, malicious, and false.” And Schmidt’s article titled “As Election Nears, Kelly Warns Trump Would Rule Like a Dictator,” also published in October 2024, was characterized as “false, malicious, defamatory, and disparaging.”

The lawsuit repeatedly maintains that the defendants published information they knew was false in an effort to hurt Trump in the 2024 presidential election. 

Judge Steven Merryday, appointed to the bench by former President George H.W. Bush, dismissed the complaint in a ruling Friday but gave Trump’s legal team 28 days to file an amended complaint. He cited the length of the complaint, coming in at 85 pages, as the primary reason for its dismissal, ordering any new complaint not to exceed 40 pages.