US President Donald Trump has refiled his $15 billion defamation lawsuit against The New York Times, weeks after a federal judge dismissed the original case for being overly long and filled with exaggerated praise.
The renewed filing marks the latest escalation in Trump’s ongoing campaign against media outlets he accuses of bias.
According to court documents seen by AFP, the new lawsuit, filed Thursday, October 16, in Florida, runs 40 pages, less than half the length of the previous 85-page version that Judge Steven Merryday threw out in September. The judge had criticized the initial filing for its “florid writing,” repetitiveness, and excessive length.
The latest complaint targets what Trump calls “false, defamatory, and malicious publications,” including two New York Times articles and a book published by Penguin Random House. It names the newspaper, three of its reporters, and the publishing house as defendants.
Trump’s lawyers wrote that the publications “wrongly defame and disparage President Trump’s hard-earned professional reputation, which he painstakingly built for decades” before entering public office. The suit accuses the defendants of acting “with actual malice,” a key legal standard in U.S. defamation law.
The filing asks the court to award Trump at least $15 billion in compensatory damages and additional punitive damages “in an amount to be determined upon trial.”
Trump’s legal team has framed the lawsuit as part of a broader battle against what they describe as “media corruption and political persecution.” The president has long attacked major outlets, including The New York Times, CNN, and The Washington Post, as “fake news,” accusing them of unfair coverage.
Since returning to the White House, Trump has filed multiple defamation suits. In July 2025, he sued Rupert Murdoch and The Wall Street Journal for $10 billion, claiming its reporting falsely linked him to a letter allegedly sent to convicted s3x offender Jeffrey Epstein.
That same month, Trump reached a $16 million settlement with Paramount Global over a segment on CBS’s 60 Minutes, which he claimed had been deceptively edited to favor his 2024 election opponent, Kamala Harris.
While critics say Trump’s lawsuits are attempts to intimidate the press, his supporters argue they are necessary to hold media outlets accountable for spreading what they view as politically motivated falsehoods.
The New York Times has not yet issued a public response to the latest filing.
