U.S. President Donald Trump has submitted a revised $15 billion defamation lawsuit against The New York Times, weeks after a judge struck down his earlier filing for being overly lengthy.
The new complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for Florida’s Middle District, alleges that The New York Times and several of its reporters defamed Trump through two articles published in 2024 and a book released last year. The book, Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father’s Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success, was written by Times journalists Susanne Craig and Russ Buettner and published by Penguin Random House.
Trump’s legal team said the former president “continues to hold the Fake News accountable” through what it described as a “powerhouse lawsuit” against the newspaper, its reporters, and the publisher, according to a statement given to Fox News Digital.
The case names The New York Times Company, reporters Craig, Buettner, Peter Baker, and Michael S. Schmidt, as well as Penguin Random House as defendants.
A spokesperson for The New York Times dismissed the case as meritless, saying that “nothing has changed” since the original filing. “This is merely an attempt to discourage independent journalism and attract publicity,” the spokesperson said.
Trump’s first complaint, spanning 85 pages, was rejected by a federal judge who directed his lawyers to condense the document to no more than 40 pages and resubmit it within 28 days. The revised filing now meets that requirement.
The lawsuit centres on reporting that examined Trump’s television career on The Apprentice and alleged questionable tax practices during his business dealings.
Separately, Trump has also brought legal action against CBS, accusing the network of “election interference” over a 60 Minutes interview with then–Vice President Kamala Harris. The complaint claimed that the broadcast misled viewers through selective editing. In July, CBS’s parent company, Paramount Global, reportedly reached a settlement worth up to $30 million as it prepared for an $8 billion merger with Skydance Media.