Federal judge tosses Trump’s defamation lawsuit against New York Times

A federal judge in Florida on Friday (September 19, 2025) tossed U.S. President Donald Trump’s $15 billion defamation lawsuit against New York Times.

The lawsuit named a book and an article written by Times reporters Russ Buettner and Susanne Craig that focuses on Mr. Trump’s finances and his pre-presidency starring role in television’s “The Apprentice”.

Mr. Trump said in the lawsuit that they “maliciously peddled the fact-free narrative” that television producer Mark Burnett turned Mr. Trump into a celebrity — “even though at and prior to the time of publications defendants knew that President Trump was already a mega-celebrity and an enormous success in business”.