President Donald Trump has added The New York Times to the list of media companies he's challenged in court, filing a $15 billion defamation lawsuit that targets four of its journalists in a book and three articles published within a two-month period before the last election.
In a Truth Social post announcing the lawsuit early Tuesday, Trump called the Times “one of the worst and most degenerate newspapers in the nation's history” and a virtual mouthpiece for Democrats. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Florida.
The Times called the lawsuit meritless and an attempt to discourage independent reporting. “The New York Times will not be deterred by intimidation tactics,” spokesman Charlie Stadtlander said.
It follows lawsuits Trump has filed against ABC News and CBS News' “60 Minutes,” both of which were settled out of court by the news organizations' parent companies. Trump also sued The Wall Street Journal and media mogul Rupert Murdoch in July after the newspaper published a story reporting on his ties to wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein.
The lawsuit names a book and an article written by Times reporters Russ Buettner and Susanne Craig that focuses on Trump's finances and his pre-presidency starring role in television's “The Apprentice.”
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Trump said in the lawsuit they “maliciously peddled the fact-free narrative” that television producer Mark Burnett discovered Trump into a celebrity — “even though at and prior to the time of publications defendants knew that President Trump was already a mega-celebrity and an enormous success in business.” The 85-page lawsuit also attacks claims the reporters made about Trump's early business dealings and his father, Fred.
Trump also cites an article by Peter Baker last Oct. 20 headlined “For Trump, a Lifetime of Scandals Heads Toward a Moment of Judgment.” He also sues Michael S. Schmidt for a piece two days later featuring an interview with Trump's first-term chief of staff, John Kelly, headlined “As Election Nears, Kelly Warns Trump Would Rule Like a Dictator.”
In the lawsuit, Trump claimed The Times “could not accept President Trump's win in 2016 and could not fathom his winning again in a landslide.” It wasn't a part of the case, but Trump attacked the newspaper's “deranged” editorial endorsement of opponent Kamala Harris last year.
“The ‘Times’ has engaged in a decades long method of lying about your Favorite President (ME!), my family, business, the America First Movement, MAGA and our Nation as a whole,” Trump said on Truth Social. “I am PROUD to hold this once-respected ‘rag’ responsible.”
None of Trump's media lawsuits have made it to court, but in court papers he claimed the settlements with ABC and CBS as part of his “successful undertaking to restore integrity to journalism.”
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The president has also been involved in a lawsuit by The Associated Press over restricting the news organization's access to cover him in retaliation for its decision not to follow his executive order to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.
The Times' Stadtlander said that the news organization “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.”
Penguin Random House, publisher of Buettner and Craig's book, “Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father's Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success,” said it stands by the book and its authors.
