Published: 1:20pm, 16 Sep 2025Updated: 2:25pm, 16 Sep 2025
US President Donald Trump on Monday filed a US$15 billion lawsuit for defamation and libel against The New York Times, days after the newspaper released articles on his ties to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
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The move comes after Trump threatened last week to sue the Times for its reporting related to a sexually suggestive note and drawing given to Epstein.
“Today, I have the Great Honour of bringing a $15 Billion Dollar Defamation and Libel Lawsuit against The New York Times,” Trump said in a post on his social media platform Truth Social.
“The New York Times has been allowed to freely lie, smear, and defame me for far too long, and that stops, NOW.”
The lawsuit filed in US District Court in Florida names several articles and one book written by two of the publication’s journalists and published in the lead-up to the 2024 election, saying they are “part of a decades-long pattern by The New York Times of intentional and malicious defamation against President Trump”.
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“Defendants published such statements negligently, with knowledge of the falsity of the statements, and/or with reckless disregard of their truth or falsity,” the lawsuit says.
The Times did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside regular business hours.