Donald Trump’s active lawsuit against The New York Times is a $15 billion defamation case filed in September 2025 in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, refiled in October 2025 after a judge struck the original complaint, and still pending as of mid-2026 with motions to dismiss unresolved. It is his third civil action against the paper in six years; the two earlier suits were both dismissed.
What the Current Suit Claims
Trump filed the original 85-page complaint on September 15, 2025, naming the Times, publisher Penguin Random House, and reporters Susanne Craig, Russ Buettner, Peter Baker, and Michael S. Schmidt. The suit sought $15 billion in compensatory damages plus unspecified punitive damages and accused the paper of being a “full-throated mouthpiece of the Democrat Party.”1NBC News. Trump Refiles $15B Defamation Lawsuit Against the New York Times
The complaint focused on reporting about Trump’s finances and his path to hosting The Apprentice, and on the book Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father’s Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success. Trump disputed characterizations that his inheritance from his father, Fred C. Trump, resulted from “fraudulent tax evasion schemes” and that the elder Trump had manipulated federal housing programs intended for World War II veterans. He also objected to the suggestion that he had been “discovered” for the reality show, claiming he was already famous. The original filing further targeted articles by Baker and Schmidt from the weeks before the 2024 election, including one that quoted former White House chief of staff John Kelly warning that Trump “would rule like a dictator.”2The Guardian. Trump Refiles New York Times Defamation Complaint3First Amendment Watch. A Timeline of Trump Legal Fights With Media Organizations
The Judge Struck the First Complaint
Four days after the filing, Judge Steven D. Merryday struck the complaint for violating the federal rule requiring a “short and plain statement” of claims. He called the filing “repetitive,” “unnecessarily discursive,” and “laden with ‘florid and enervating’ prose,” writing that “a complaint is not a public forum for vituperation and invective.” Even assuming the factual allegations were true, he found the document’s structure “decidedly improper and impermissible.” He gave Trump’s lawyers 28 days to refile a complaint no longer than 40 pages.4BBC News. Judge Strikes Down Trump’s $15bn Lawsuit Against New York Times
Trump refiled on October 16, 2025. The 40-page amended complaint narrowed the claims to six counts of defamation, dropped Schmidt as a defendant, removed references to the 2024 election and prior media lawsuits, and added a demand for a formal retraction. The remaining defendants are the Times, Penguin Random House, Craig, Buettner, and Baker.1NBC News. Trump Refiles $15B Defamation Lawsuit Against the New York Times
Where the Case Stands Now
In December 2025, the defendants filed motions to dismiss for failure to state a claim and for improper venue. In January 2026, Judge Merryday directed the parties to confer on venue-related discovery and to propose mediators. A mediator was appointed in March 2026, and a mediation conference was scheduled for April. Trump filed his opposition to the motions to dismiss on April 29, 2026. As of mid-2026, Judge Merryday has not ruled on those motions, and the case remains active.5Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse. Trump v. New York Times Company et al.
In January 2026, Trump announced on Truth Social that he intended to add grievances about a New York Times/Siena College poll to the existing suit. It is unclear whether such claims have been formally added to the complaint.6The Guardian. Trump Says He Will Add Poll Grievances to Defamation Suit Against New York Times
How the Times and Legal Experts Have Responded
The Times has said the suit “has no merit,” describing it as “an attempt to stifle independent reporting and generate PR attention.” The Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University called the suit “frivolous on its face,” arguing it lacked “allegations of specific false statements of fact that would meet the rigorous standards for defamation claims brought by public figures” and was designed to “impose crushing legal costs on media organizations and create a chilling effect.”7Knight First Amendment Institute. Trump Lawsuit Against New York Times Weaponizes Defamation Law to Silence Critics
Trump’s Two Earlier Suits Against the Times
The current case follows two prior actions, both dismissed.
The 2020 Campaign Suit Over a Russia Opinion Essay
In February 2020, Trump’s re-election campaign sued the Times in New York State Supreme Court over a March 2019 opinion essay titled “The Real Trump-Russia Quid Pro Quo” by Max Frankel, a former Times executive editor. The essay argued that the Trump campaign and Russian officials had an “overarching deal” in which Russia would help defeat Hillary Clinton in exchange for a pro-Russian foreign policy. The campaign said the paper knew the claims were false and sought damages “in the millions.” On March 9, 2021, the court dismissed the case, ruling the essay was “constitutionally protected speech.”8CBS News. Trump Campaign Sues New York Times Over March 2019 Russia Opinion Piece9The New York Times. Trump Campaign’s Lawsuit Against the New York Times Is Dismissed
The 2021 Suit Over the Family Tax Records
In September 2021, Trump sued Times reporters Craig, David Barstow, and Buettner, along with his niece, Mary Trump, alleging tortious interference — not libel — for persuading Mary Trump to breach a confidentiality agreement and hand over tax documents used in the paper’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 2018 investigation. That investigation concluded Trump participated in “dubious tax schemes during the 1990s, including instances of outright fraud.”10NPR. Trump Sues Niece Mary and New York Times Over Tax Return Stories
On May 3, 2023, Justice Robert R. Reed of the New York State Supreme Court dismissed the claims against the Times and its reporters, ruling they “fail as a matter of constitutional law.” He found the reporting was “legal and ordinary newsgathering” protected by the First Amendment and that the suit qualified as a strategic lawsuit against public participation under New York’s anti-SLAPP law. Trump was ordered to pay the paper’s legal fees, reportedly close to $400,000. The claims against Mary Trump continued separately and were settled in June 2026.11First Amendment Watch. New York Judge Dismisses Trump’s $100M Lawsuit Against the New York Times12Reuters. Donald Trump Settles Lawsuit Against Niece Over Publication of Tax Records
Why These Suits Are Hard to Win
Defamation claims by public officials have to clear the actual-malice standard set in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (1964), which requires proof that a defendant knew a statement was false or acted with reckless disregard for its truth. That constitutional floor has made it extremely difficult for politicians to win libel suits against the press for more than 60 years.
Trump has repeatedly called for weakening those protections. As a candidate in 2016, he pledged to “open up our libel laws so when they write purposely negative and horrible and false articles, we can sue them and win lots of money.” As president in 2018, he called existing libel laws “a sham and a disgrace.” A president’s direct power in this area is limited: libel law is largely state statutory and common law, and the Sullivan standard is set by the Supreme Court.13American Bar Association. Getting Truth From Fake News, Libel Laws, and Enemies of the American People
Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch have each called on the Supreme Court to reconsider Sullivan, and Sarah Palin’s defamation case against the Times was widely viewed as a potential vehicle for a challenge. Palin lost her retrial in April 2025 when a federal jury ruled unanimously that the Times was not liable, and her post-trial motions for a new trial and for the judge’s recusal were both denied in December 2025.14Politico. Judge Refuses to Grant Sarah Palin a New Trial in Libel Lawsuit Against the New York Times Five days before Trump’s second inauguration, Justice Brett Kavanaugh cited Sullivan “with seeming approval” in an unrelated case, and other justices beyond Thomas and Gorsuch “have not shown much interest in revisiting” it.15The New York Times. Supreme Court Signals Libel Precedent Remains Secure
A pending cert petition in Dershowitz v. Cable News Network, Inc. (No. 25-770) asks the Court directly to reconsider Sullivan. It has been repeatedly relisted at conference through at least June 2026 without a grant or denial, a pattern that SCOTUSblog analysts say is “more likely to produce separate writing than a grant.”16SCOTUSblog. Dershowitz v. Cable News Network, Inc.
Other Trump–Times Fights That Aren’t This Case
Some conflicts between Trump and the Times travel under the same headlines but sit outside the Florida defamation suit. The paper has separately sued the Pentagon over press-credentialing rules imposed under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, winning a ruling from U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman in March 2026 that the policy was unconstitutional, and filing a second suit in May 2026 over a follow-on escort requirement.17ABC 7 Chicago. Judge Reinstates NYT Credentials and Strikes Down Pentagon Press Policy18The Washington Post. New York Times Files New Pentagon Suit Challenging Escort Requirement The EEOC sued the paper in May 2026 over a single hiring decision for a deputy real estate editor position.19Politico. Federal Discrimination Watchdog Sues New York Times Over Hiring And during Trump’s first term, the Justice Department secretly obtained phone records for four Times reporters and sought their email logs from Google under a gag order, actions the Biden administration later disclosed in June 2021.20The New York Times. Trump Administration Secretly Seized Phone Records of Times Reporters None of these are part of the $15 billion defamation case, which continues to turn on the book, the tax reporting, and the pre-election coverage named in the amended complaint.