Trump Sues New York Times for $15 Billion, Accuses Paper of Smear Campaign

By Staff, Agencies

US President Donald Trump has filed a $15 billion defamation lawsuit against the New York Times, alleging the newspaper orchestrated a smear campaign against him while openly favoring Democrats.

In a post on Truth Social Monday, Trump branded the Times “one of the worst and most degenerate newspapers in the history of our country,” accusing it of acting as a “mouthpiece for the Radical Left Democrat Party”.

He described the paper’s endorsement of his 2024 rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, as “the single largest illegal campaign contribution, EVER”.

Trump further claimed 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.” He declared that the paper has been allowed to “freely lie, smear and defame me for far too long, and that stops, NOW”.

The lawsuit was filed in Florida. The New York Times has yet to issue a comment.

The newspaper has endorsed presidential candidates in every election since 1852. It last backed a Republican in 1956, when it supported Dwight Eisenhower. In 2024, its editorial board endorsed Harris, citing her “care, competence and respect for the Constitution” as fundamental qualities for high office.

This is not Trump’s first legal battle with major media outlets. Earlier this year, CBS parent company Paramount Global paid $16 million to settle a lawsuit over a 60 Minutes interview with Harris.

Trump had accused CBS of airing two different versions of Harris’s remarks on the “Israel”-Gaza conflict, one of which he claimed was edited to make her appear more coherent. CBS defended the edits as routine and later released the full unedited interview.