Trump sues New York Times and four journalists for defamation
The US president claimed the paper has become ‘a mouthpiece for the Radical Left Democrat Party’.
President Donald Trump has filed a 15 billion dollar (£11bn) defamation lawsuit against The New York Times and four of its journalists.
The lawsuit filed in US District Court in Florida names several articles and one book written by two of the publication’s journalists and published in the lead up to the 2024 election, saying they are “part of a decades-long pattern by the New York Times of intentional and malicious defamation against President Trump”.
“Defendants published such statements negligently, with knowledge of the falsity of the statements, and/or with reckless disregard of their truth or falsity,” the lawsuit says.
In a Truth Social post announcing the lawsuit, Mr Trump accused The New York Times of lying about him and defaming him, saying it has become “a virtual ‘mouthpiece’ for the Radical Left Democrat Party”.
Mr Trump has gone after other media outlets, including filing a 10 billion dollar (£7.3bn) defamation lawsuit against the 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.
Later, as Mr Trump prepared to leave for his UK state visit, was asked by an Australian Broadcasting Corp reporter about his wealth since returning to office.
Mr Trump told the reporter: “You’re hurting Australia very much right now, and they want to get along with me.”
He told the reporter that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese would be visiting soon and “I’m going to tell him about you. You set a very bad tone”.
The president also criticised ABC News correspondent Jonathan Karl, whom he has known for years. Mr Karl asked Mr Trump about the attorney general’s comments that she will be going after hate speech after the killing of Charlie Kirk.
Mr Karl told Mr Trump that even some of his allies say hate speech is free speech.
Mr Trump responded by telling Mr Karl the administration would “probably go after people like you, because you treat me so unfairly, it’s hate. You have a lot of hate in your heart”.
