The Complaint alleges a “malicious, defamatory, and disparaging” campaign to sabotage the 2024 election and tarnish his legacy.
President Donald J. Trump has filed a massive lawsuit against the New York Times, Penguin Random House, and several reporters, seeking a jaw-dropping $15 billion in damages.
The 85-page complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, accuses the defendants of a coordinated, decades-long campaign of “industrial-scale defamation and libel.”
The lawsuit claims the defendants’ goal was to “kill three birds with one stone”: damage President Trump’s business reputation, sabotage his 2024 presidential candidacy, and prejudice judges and juries in legal cases against him.
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Despite what the complaint describes as “persistent election interference,” Trump “won the 2024 Presidential Election over Vice President Kamala Harris in historic fashion.”
The Apprentice and the ‘Gray Lady’
At the heart of the complaint are a book and several articles published just before the 2024 election. The book, titled “Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father’s Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success,” and a related article, are central to the case. Trump’s lawyers argue that the publications are built on a “nonsensical, false, malicious, and defamatory premise”—that television producer Mark Burnett “discovered” and made Trump a celebrity.
The complaint meticulously counters this claim, citing instances from the 1980s where Trump was already a national figure, featured in publications like GQ and on CBS’s “60 Minutes.”
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The filing points out that the book’s authors, Susanne Craig and Russ Buettner, admit in their own work that Burnett and NBC needed Trump because of his existing “charisma and good looks,” and his “reputation of whatever he touches turns to gold.”
A Pattern of ‘Falsehoods’ and ‘Lawfare’
The lawsuit further alleges that this is part of a larger, long-running pattern of “intentional and malicious defamation.” It references a 2016 article by a Times reporter who suggested the newspaper should be “oppositional” if a Trump presidency was viewed as “dangerous.”
The complaint also cites recent legal victories for President Trump, including settlements with ABC News and Paramount, as evidence that “the era of unchecked, deliberate defamation” is over.
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According to the complaint, the defendants’ “actual malice” is clear. “Defendants baselessly hate President Trump in a deranged way,” the document states. It claims the New York Times and its reporters “routinely resolve any factual ambiguities or uncertainties… in the way that will most harm President Trump.”
The lawsuit is demanding $15 billion in compensatory damages and an unspecified amount in punitive damages, along with a jury trial. This legal battle sets the stage for a dramatic showdown that could redefine the boundaries of journalism and defamation law in the digital age.
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