Trump Sues Again

Donald Trump has a notoriously thin skin ....

Notoriously Thin Skinned Man

 ... something of a handicap in a real career politician, but then he's not a career politico is he?

He is rather, a rich man playing at being a politician for a vanity project (much like his very public efforts to get the Nobel peace Prize for events he didn't do). He only entered politics by running firstly for the Republican presidential nomination and then later as a successful presidential candidate. Consequently, he hasn't built up the thick skin of a long-term politician rising through the ranks, and thus he can't stand any criticism, and much prefers to sue News organisations that don't fawn over him and his policies.

So the latest target for his ire and legal action is the New York Times, a paper he's had a pop at before. He has stated that after endorsing Kamala Harris in 2024, it had become a "mouthpiece for the Radical Left Democrat Party." This time, he has said that he is going to sue the New York Times for $15bn (£11bn) for what he says is their "defamation and libel."

"The New York Times has been allowed to freely lie, smear, and defame me for far too long, and that stops, NOW!" he trumpeted on his social media platform, Truth Social, on the 15th of September 2025.

He also confirmed that the lawsuit would be launched in Republican Florida. That endorsement of Ms Harris apparently really got under his skin ....  "Their Endorsement of Kamala Harris was actually put dead center on the front page of The New York Times, something heretofore UNHEARD OF!" ... Trump of course was a long-term New York Democrat, before switching to the Republicans in order to successfully become a presidential candidate ... and may have expected the newspapers endorsement.

However less than a week later this initial New York Times lawsuit was thrown out ... apparently it was too long and was over 85 pages long with the actual two points of defamation not appearing until page eighty and page eighty five respectively. No doubt they will resubmit it in a shortened version.  

In the same Truth Social post, he also went on to accuse other media outlets and TV programmes of "smearing" him through "a highly sophisticated system of document and visual alteration" .... a possible reference to the now seen Epstein birthday book (which contains a message that he both denies sending, and also claims was faked in some incomprehensible manner). Of course he is also embroiled in a number of other legal cases, from defamation to New York taxes, and earlier this year he announced that he was suing the Wall St Journal for $10bn for similar reasons (it was also related to that now infamous birthday message).  

President Trump has announced and launched these mega lawsuits before. In 2021, he launched a $100m (£79m) lawsuit against the New York Times accusing the newspaper and Trump's estranged niece, Mary Trump, of "an insidious plot" to obtain his tax records as part of a Pulitzer Prize-winning series on Trump's financial affairs. In 2023, a judge dismissed this lawsuit filed by him, then as an ex-president, against the New York Times, saying that the claims in the lawsuit "fail as a matter of constitutional law." 

Trump also lost another defamation bid in 2023, when he sought in vain to sue CNN for allegedly likening him to Adolf Hitler. A federal judge later threw out the $475m (£369m) lawsuit. So we wait to see how he fares this time .... he certainly isn't going to get $15bn (£11bn) or anything like it if he wins. A lot hinges on if he can prove that the NYTs and others have practised "document and visual alteration," because the US constitution generally protects free speech.

But he won one law suit late last year, when ABC News settled $16 million to him for a defamation lawsuit over a broadcast hosts mis-description of the verdict in the E Jean Carroll case. You could maybe see the business sense of them settling, rather than fighting it: Thinking something along the lines of saying you’re sorry and paying up and then hoping that this will all blow over ... but instead Trumps appetite has apparently been whetted.  

I'm almost (but not quite), tempted to wait until the legal fun and games play out, but why deprive myself of another post, if I'm still alive when all these cases finally wind through the US legal system and courts.

Update: Trump has just won $24.5m dollars from YouTube aka Google aka Alphabet (for closing his channel in 2021 following the Capitol Hill riot). This year, he has previously won $25m from Meta, and $10m from X, for also suspending his accounts on their platforms in 2021 for similar reasons. Oddly these platforms have normally fought and won lawsuits establishing their rights to run their platforms as they wish, including suspending accounts. However since Trump got back in to office, they have just caved in and paid him (and others, such as the American Conservative Union who got $2.5m) money. There must be concerns about where this is all going or leading to, and without a doubt its changing the USA, and it depends on your view point, as to whether its for the better or worse.