U.S. President Donald Trump announced Monday that he is suing The New York Times for $15 billion, alleging defamation, libel, and political bias in what he described as a long-standing campaign to damage his reputation.
In a statement posted on his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump claimed the newspaper has “freely lied, smeared, and defamed” him for years, asserting that the lawsuit—set to be filed in Florida—marks the beginning of a broader legal pushback against what he called partisan media attacks.
“The New York Times has been allowed to freely lie, smear, and defame me for far too long, and that stops, NOW!” Trump wrote.
He also denounced the paper’s endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election, calling it “unprecedented” and “heretofore UNHEARD OF” for appearing on the front page. Trump accused the Times of serving as a “mouthpiece for the Radical Left Democrat Party.”
Trump further claimed that several media outlets have participated in a “highly sophisticated system of document and visual alteration” aimed at smearing him, though he did not provide specific evidence. The New York Times has not yet publicly responded to the lawsuit or the allegations.
This marks the latest in a string of legal actions Trump has taken against media organizations. In 2023, a New York judge dismissed a $100 million lawsuit he filed against The New York Times and his niece, Mary Trump, over the disclosure of his tax records for a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation. That same year, a Florida court threw out a $475 million defamation case against CNN after the network compared Trump to Adolf Hitler in its programming.
While Trump’s lawsuits have consistently garnered headlines, they have rarely succeeded in court. Legal analysts note that public figures face a high bar for proving defamation under U.S. law, which requires showing that false statements were made with “actual malice.”
As of Monday evening, neither The New York Times nor the White House had issued an official response to the latest legal filing.
