Wire flash
PoliticsJudge declines to dismiss Trump's $15 bln NYT defamation suit, orders amended complaint
Editorial responsibility
- No named human review is recorded for this page.
- Source reporting is collected, normalized, translated or condensed automatically when needed.
- Automatically published source-backed update
A federal judge has declined to immediately dismiss President Donald Trump's $15 billion defamation lawsuit against The New York Times, instead ordering Trump to file an amended complaint by August 27. The order, signed by District Court Judge Steven D. Merryday, defers ruling on the Times' motion to dismiss and gives the newspaper three weeks to respond to the revised complaint. Trump celebrated the decision as a victory on Truth Social. The lawsuit, filed in September 2025, alleges the Times defamed Trump with false statements about his business reputation and attempted to sabotage his 2024 presidential campaign. The suit targets articles and a book titled 'Lucky Loser.' This is the second time the judge has required revisions; he previously threw out the original 85-page complaint for being too long and lacking conciseness. The amended complaint may exceed the previous 40-page limit if it contains factual allegations consistent with court rules.
Source report
Topline
A federal judge has declined to immediately dismiss President Donald Trump’s $15 billion defamation lawsuit against The New York Times, but will require the president to file an amended complaint within the next month, according to an order signed on Monday.
Key Facts
- In an order signed on Monday, District Court Judge Steven D. Merryday deferred ruling on The Times’ motion to dismiss Trump’s defamation suit, allowing the president to file an amended complaint by August 27.
- Merryday’s order did not elaborate on why the suit needed revision before his ruling on the dismissal motion. The order states The Times will have three weeks to respond to the amended complaint.
- Trump celebrated the order as a victory on Monday, posting on Truth Social that the newspaper “failed again in their desperate attempt to have our powerful Defamation Lawsuit against them dropped.”
Key Background
Trump filed the $15 billion lawsuit against The New York Times, multiple reporters at the paper, and book publisher Penguin Random House in September 2025. The suit alleged the paper defamed him by making false statements about his “hard-earned and world-renowned reputation for business success” and attempting to “sabotage” his 2024 presidential campaign. The complaint cited articles written by the reporters and a book by two of them titled “Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father’s Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success.”
Merryday threw out the original 85-page lawsuit that same month, ordering Trump to refile with “simple, concise, and direct” claims. “A complaint is not a public forum for vituperation and invective — not a protected platform to rage against an adversary,” Merryday wrote at the time. The judge gave Trump 28 days to file a complaint under 40 pages, which was filed in October 2025. The New York Times subsequently moved to dismiss this complaint for failing to state a claim.
What to Watch For
The amended complaint may exceed Merryday’s previous 40-page limit, as long as it “comprises factual allegations consistent with the applicable rules.”
Further Reading
- Forbes: Why Trump’s Brand Is Not Worth $100 Billion, And Other Outlandish Details Of His Complaint Against The New York Times
Source
Forbes - BusinessWestern
Part of this Story
Judge Allows Trump's $15 Billion New York Times Defamation Lawsuit to Proceed, Requires Amended Complaint