On September 15, 2025, President Donald J. Trump, age 79, commenced a civil action in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida, seeking no less than USD 15 billion in compensatory damages, together with punitive damages to be assessed at trial. The defendants named in the 85-page complaint include The New York Times Company, four of its reporters (Russ Buettner, Susanne Craig, Peter Baker, and Michael S. Schmidt), and Penguin Random House LLC.
The complaint alleges that the defendants engaged in a “decades-long pattern of intentional and malicious defamation” against President Trump, constituting conduct undertaken with actual malice and in reckless disregard for the truth. At issue are three articles published by the Times between September and October 2024, as well as a book authored by Buettner and Craig and published by Penguin Random House in the same period.
According to the filing, the Times purportedly deviated from accepted journalistic standards and industry best practices, publishing articles “in the most antagonistic and negative way” and failing to provide Trump with adequate opportunity to respond prior to publication. The complaint further contends that the defendants’ coverage reflects “baseless hatred” and a “deranged” animus toward the plaintiff.
The suit was lodged days after the Times reported that Trump had threatened legal action concerning articles on an allegedly lewd birthday note connected to Jeffrey Epstein—a claim that Trump has categorically denied. In a contemporaneous statement on his Truth Social platform, Trump declared: “The New York Times has been allowed to freely lie, smear, and defame me for far too long, and that stops, NOW!”
This matter follows other recent defamation actions brought by Trump, including:
A pending $10 billion suit against Rupert Murdoch and The Wall Street Journal regarding its reporting on his alleged correspondence with Epstein.
A $16 million settlement with Paramount Global in July 2025, concerning allegations that CBS’s 60 Minutes deceptively edited coverage of his 2024 election rival, Vice President Kamala Harris.
At the time of filing, The New York Times had not provided public comment on the litigation.#newsafro_
