Former U.S. President Donald Trump has filed a lawsuit in Florida seeking at least $15 billion in damages against The New York Times, four of its journalists, and publisher Penguin Random House, alleging defamation and libel and claiming the coverage caused significant harm to his reputation, according to a court filing released Monday.
The lawsuit points to several New York Times articles—including a pre-2024 election editorial declaring Trump unfit for office—and a 2024 Penguin book titled “Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father’s Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success,” as key examples of the alleged defamation.
“Defendants maliciously published the Book and the Articles knowing that these publications were filled with repugnant distortions and fabrications about President Trump,” the complaint filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida alleges.
The New York Times and Penguin did not immediately respond to requests for comment made outside normal business hours.
The filings assert that the publications inflicted severe harm on Trump’s business and personal reputation, dealing a major blow to his brand value and significantly undermining his future financial prospects, according to his legal team.
“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,” said his lawyers, citing “a precipitous decline in the stock price.”
TMTG shares have faced mounting pressure in recent months amid concerns over the expiration of the so-called lock-up period following the company’s March market debut.
The lawsuit follows Trump’s threat last week to take legal action against The New York Times over its reporting on an allegedly sexually suggestive note and drawing linked to Jeffrey Epstein.
Epstein, the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender, died by suicide in a New York jail cell in 2019.
Trump has stated that he cut ties with Epstein well before the financier’s legal troubles surfaced publicly in 2006.
“Today, I have the Great Honor of bringing a $15 Billion Dollar Defamation and Libel Lawsuit against The New York Times,” Trump announced Monday in a post on his social media platform, Truth Social.
In the post, Trump accused the newspaper of spreading falsehoods about him, his family, and his businesses, as well as targeting Republican-led movements and ideologies, including the America First Movement and Make America Great Again (MAGA).
In his second term, Trump has escalated his legal battles against media outlets. Earlier this year, he filed a lawsuit seeking at least $10 billion against The Wall Street Journal and its owners, including Rupert Murdoch, over the newspaper’s report that his name appeared on a 2003 birthday greeting for Epstein.
In July, Paramount, the parent company of CBS, agreed to settle a lawsuit brought by Trump, who claimed that the CBS news program "60 Minutes" deceptively edited an interview with former Vice
