U.S. President Donald Trump has filed a $15 billion lawsuit against the New York Times, four of its reporters, and publisher Penguin Random House, alleging defamation and libel. The suit, lodged in Florida on Monday, accuses them of causing reputational and financial damage.
According to the complaint, the lawsuit targets a series of New York Times articles, including an editorial before the 2024 presidential election that described Trump as unfit for office.
It also cites a Penguin book published last year titled “Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father’s Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success.”
“Defendants maliciously published the Book and the Articles knowing that these publications were filled with repugnant distortions and fabrications about President Trump,” the filing stated. The case was submitted to the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida.
The New York Times and Penguin did not immediately respond to requests for comment outside normal business hours.
Trump’s lawyers argue the articles and book caused severe harm to both his personal and professional reputation. They claim the publications inflicted massive economic losses, reducing the value of his brand and limiting his financial prospects.
“The harm to the value of TMTG (Trump Media and Technology Group) stock is one example of how the Defendants’ defamation has injured President Trump,” his attorneys wrote, pointing to “a precipitous decline in the stock price.”
TMTG shares have already come under pressure in recent months, driven in part by investor concerns about the expiration of a lock-up period tied to its market debut in March.
The legal action follows Trump’s warning last week that he would sue the New York Times for its coverage of an allegedly sexually suggestive note and drawing given to Jeffrey Epstein.
Epstein, a disgraced financier and convicted sex offender, died by suicide in a New York jail in 2019. Trump has maintained he ended his association with Epstein in 2006, before the financier’s criminal activities became public.
“Today, I have the Great Honor of bringing a $15 Billion Dollar Defamation and Libel Lawsuit against The New York Times,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Monday.
In the same post, he accused the newspaper of lying about him, his family, his businesses, and Republican-backed movements, including the America First Movement and Make America Great Again.
The lawsuit is the latest in a series of Trump’s escalating legal actions against media organizations. Earlier this year, he sued the Wall Street Journal and its parent company, controlled by Rupert Murdoch, for at least $10 billion over a report linking him to a 2003 birthday message to Epstein.
In July, CBS parent company Paramount agreed to settle another lawsuit from Trump, who alleged the network’s 60 Minutes program deceptively edited an interview with Vice President Kamala Harris that aired in October.
