The US President alleges the newspaper has systematically misrepresented him for decades, effectively acting as a propaganda arm for the Democratic Party.
Donald Trump, the US President, has initiated a $15 billion defamation lawsuit against the New York Times. He accuses the publication of orchestrating a targeted smear campaign against him and demonstrating undue partisan bias in favor of Democrats.
Posting on Truth Social earlier this week, Trump labeled the NYT “one of the worst and most degenerate newspapers in the history of our country.” He asserted that the paper now functions as a “mouthpiece for the Radical Left Democrat Party” and characterized its endorsement of his 2024 Democratic opponent, Kamala Harris, as “the single largest illegal campaign contribution, EVER.”
He further alleged that the newspaper “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.”
“The New York Times has been allowed to freely lie, smear, and defame me for far too long, and that stops, NOW.”
The New York Times has not yet issued a statement regarding the lawsuit, which Trump confirmed was initiated in Florida.
Since 1852, the newspaper has consistently endorsed presidential candidates in every election cycle. For many decades, Democratic candidates have received the paper’s support; its last endorsement of a Republican was for Dwight Eisenhower in 1956.
For the 2024 election, the paper’s editorial board publicly supported Kamala Harris, stating she “demonstrated care, competence and respect for the Constitution – the fundamental qualities necessary for high office.”
This incident is not the first time Trump has been involved in a dispute with prominent media organizations. Earlier this year, Paramount Global, the parent company of CBS, agreed to a $16 million settlement in a lawsuit filed by Trump concerning a ‘60 Minutes’ interview featuring Harris.
Trump claimed that CBS broadcast two distinct versions of Harris’s answer to a query regarding the Israel-Gaza conflict: one where her comments were, in his words, “word salad,” and a second, edited version where the response seemed more coherent. He accused the network of intentionally presenting Harris in a more positive way in anticipation of the election. CBS maintained that its editing was standard procedure and subsequently released the complete, unedited interview.