Trump Sues 'Legacy' Media Companies For Defamation: 'Publishing Blatant Lies'

Donald Trump arrives to a Q&A with Pastor Paula White at the National Faith Advisory Summit on October 28, 2024 in Powder Springs, Georgia.

President-elect Donald Trump has hit back by launching a barrage of lawsuits against publishers and media outlets that have defamed him by continuously “spreading lies,” with only two months until he returns to the White House.

Trump escalates his long-standing animosity toward the “bias, left-wing mainstream media,” which he referred to as “the enemy camp” in his victory speech last week.

According to the Columbia Journalism Review, Trump’s attorney, Edward Andrew Paltzik, wrote to Penguin Random House and the New York Times two days before the presidential election, requesting $10 billion in damages for publications that spouted blatant lies about Trump.

The letter was part of a string of other legal actions taken against other media outlets who have lied about Trump out of political warfare.

Some of these lies include the left-wing mainstream media’s ongoing claims that Trump was involved with or authored with the Heritage Foundation’s “Project 2025,” that he was convicted of rape in the E. Jean Carroll case, and that he would ban abortion in the U.S. if re-elected.

However, these “legacy” media outlets have typically not had to answer to their perpetuated lies.

Social media users chimed in and commented on the recent news.

“The DOJ opened up the door to defamation suits like this by going after Alex Jones and other people they claimed promoted misinformation. By claiming Trump was Hitler and promoting project 2025 has his when he didn’t have anything to do with it they open themselves up for these cases. With all these vidoes of people freaking out over these false narratives and people killing their families in fear of these false narratives. It is likely Trump is going to win these cases,” said X user @lanny_lutz

The New York Times is “a full-throated mouthpiece of the Democratic party” that engages in “industrial-scale libel against political opponents,” according to the lawyer letter that CJR reviewed. It also accused the writers of the articles, Peter Baker, Michael S. Schmidt, Susanne Craig, and Russ Buettner, of making “false and defamatory statements” about Trump.

The letter accused the New York Times of harboring “every intention of defaming and disparaging the world-renowned Trump brand that consumers have long associated with excellence, luxury, and success in entertainment, hospitality, and real estate, among many other industries, as well as falsely and maliciously defaming and disparaging him as a candidate for the highest office in the United States.”

An insider with knowledge of the situation also told CJR that the newspaper responded to the letter by referring Paltzik to Penguin Random House, referencing its charges related to Buettner and Craig’s book and stating that it supported their reporting.

Additionally, according to CJR, attorneys representing Chris LaCivita, the co-chief of Trump’s campaign, wrote to The Daily Beast on November 5^th, requesting that the publication retract its “false” reports that LaCivita raised $22 million to support Trump’s reelection.

The Daily Beast later added an updated editor’s note in its articles in response to the letter.

“Based on a further review of FEC records, the correct total is $19.2m. The Beast regrets the error. The article has also been updated to make clear that payments were to LaCivita’s LLC not to LaCivita personally.”

“This entire narrative is completely false and a result of malicious and irresponsible reporting by The Daily Beast,” the letter continued.

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