By Obinna Uballa
United States President Donald Trump has filed a $15 billion lawsuit against The New York Times, a United States based leading global newspaper, accusing the news outfit of libel, defamation, and acting as a “virtual mouthpiece” for the Democratic Party.
The lawsuit, filed Monday in a Tampa, Florida State federal court, comes after Trump threatened legal action over the newspaper’s articles linking him to a sex suggestive note and drawing gifted to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein for his 50th birthday in 2003. Trump and his aides have denied any involvement.
Announcing the action on Truth Social late Monday night, Trump wrote: “Today, I have the Great Honor of bringing a $15 Billion Dollar Defamation and Libel Lawsuit against The New York Times. The New York Times has been allowed to freely lie, smear, and defame me for far too long, and that stops, NOW!” He also criticized the paper for endorsing Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.
Trump’s lawyers accused the NewTimes of engaging in a “deliberate pattern of false, malicious, defamatory, and disparaging” reporting aimed at damaging his campaign and legacy. They argue the “reputational injury inflicted in this case reaches billions of dollars.”
The suit referenced earlier lawsuits against other media organisations, including Disney’s ABC News, Paramount Global’s CBS News, and Dow Jones’ Wall Street Journal, which Trump’s team claims resulted in multimillion-dollar settlements or ongoing litigation.
The New York Times has not yet issued a response to the lawsuit.
