Trump Sues The New York Times for Articles Questioning His Success
"The lawsuit, filed by the president in federal court in Florida, claims The Times defamed him and sought to undermine his campaign in the 2024 election.
President Trump accused The New York Times and four of its reporters of defaming him ahead of the 2024 election, claiming that a series of articles sought to undermine his candidacy and disparage his reputation as a successful businessman.
In a lawsuit filed on Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, Mr. Trump said the articles and a book published by two of the journalists were “specifically designed to try and damage President Trump’s business, personal and political reputation.”
According to the complaint, the articles and the book were published with “actual malice” toward Mr. Trump and caused “enormous” economic losses and damage to his “professional and occupational interests.” The lawsuit asked for damages of at least $15 billion.
The defendants named in the suit were The New York Times Company and Susanne Craig, Russ Buettner, Peter Baker and Michael S. Schmidt. The complaint also named Penguin Random House, which published a book about Mr. Trump written by Ms. Craig and Mr. Buettner, as a defendant.
The complaint claims that the defendants timed the publication of the articles and books “at the height of election season to inflict maximum electoral damage against President Trump.”
A spokesman for The Times responded: “This lawsuit has no merit. It lacks any legitimate legal claims and instead is an attempt to stifle and discourage independent reporting. The New York Times will not be deterred by intimidation tactics. We will continue to pursue the facts without fear or favor and stand up for journalists’ First Amendment right to ask questions on behalf of the American people.”
A.G. Sulzberger, the publisher of The Times, said in a note to staff on Tuesday that the lawsuit was “frivolous,” adding that “everyone, regardless of their politics, should be troubled by the growing anti-press campaign led by President Trump and his administration.”
A spokeswoman for Penguin Random House said: “This is a meritless lawsuit. Penguin Random House stands by the book and its authors and will continue to uphold the values of the First Amendment that are fundamental to our role as a book publisher.”
The lawsuit against The Times is the latest in a series of legal actions taken by Mr. Trump against news outlets. He sued over the editing of a report on the CBS News program “60 Minutes,” resulting in a $16 million settlement with the network’s parent company, Paramount, in July. Last year, ABC News agreed to settle a defamation suit brought by Mr. Trump for $15 million, plus $1 million for his legal fees, over remarks made in an interview by the anchor George Stephanopoulos.
President Trump also sued The Wall Street Journal in July for an article that stated that he had sent a lewd birthday greeting to the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein in 2003.
Mr. Trump has threatened to sue The Times on a number of recent occasions, including this month for articles related to the sexually suggestive message and drawing sent to Mr. Epstein that appears to have been signed by him. Mr. Trump has denied that he created the note. The complaint he filed on Monday did not involve any of those articles.
In the lawsuit, Mr. Trump’s lawyers cited three Times articles that he maintained were part of “a pattern of falsehoods and defamation.”
The first one was an article adapted from the book by Ms. Craig and Mr. Buettner, “Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father’s Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success.” The article was about how producers of Mr. Trump’s reality television show, “The Apprentice,” helped fuel his rise to the presidency.
The complaint also referred to anecdotes from “Lucky Loser,” and from a book published by the president’s niece, Mary L. Trump, that were included in an article by Mr. Baker from October 2024 about how no major party presidential candidate had been accused of wrongdoing so many times. (A separate lawsuit that Mr. Trump filed against his niece is pending.)
The lawsuit also pointed to another October article, by Mr. Schmidt, based on interviews with John F. Kelly, the former U.S. Marine general and one of Mr. Trump’s chiefs of staff during his first term. In that article, Mr. Kelly warned that Mr. Trump might rule like a dictator if he were re-elected, and he confirmed a previous report that Mr. Trump had referred to American soldiers who died on the battlefield as “suckers” and “losers.” Mr. Trump has denied making those statements.
The complaint also took issue with the endorsement of Kamala Harris by the editorial board of The Times in September 2024, describing it as “deranged” and criticizing the editorial board’s arguments.
Mr. Trump has sued The Times on a previous occasion, without success.
In 2021, Mr. Trump sued the paper over a series of articles that investigated his finances and tax records. (Ms. Craig and Mr. Buettner were two of the reporters who wrote them.) The suit was dismissed in 2023 and Mr. Trump was ordered to pay The Times’s legal expenses.
In addition, in 2020, his re-election campaign sued for libel over an essay in the Opinion section titled “The Real Trump-Russia Quid Pro Quo.” The lawsuit was dismissed in 2021.
The lawsuit filed on Monday repeatedly took umbrage with Ms. Craig and Mr. Buettner’s book. The complaint said the book tried to tarnish one of Mr. Trump’s “most well-known successes” as a reality television star. According to the lawsuit, the book inaccurately stated that Mark Burnett, the executive producer of “The Apprentice,” had discovered Mr. Trump and transformed him into a celebrity. The lawsuit claims that Mr. Trump was already “a mega-celebrity and an enormous success in business” when he was put on the show.
In an effort to prove “malice” against Mr. Trump, the lawsuit cited more than a dozen articles from The Times dating back to his first term in office that it claimed “maliciously and falsely portray him as dishonest, erode public trust in him and tear down his achievements.”
The lawsuit also claims that the defendants “baselessly hate President Trump in a deranged way.”
In a social media post on Monday evening, Mr. Trump said he was “proud” to hold The Times responsible for decades of lying about him, his family and business. He referred to the success of his other lawsuits, pointing to the settlements by Paramount and ABC.
The case has been assigned to Judge Steven D. Merryday, an appointee of former President George H.W. Bush.
Daisuke Wakabayashi is an Asia business correspondent for The Times based in Seoul, covering economic, corporate and geopolitical stories from the region.
Michael M. Grynbaum writes about the intersection of media, politics and culture. He has been a media correspondent at The Times since 2016.
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