Washington – September 19, 2025 – A Federal District Court judge has tossed President Trump’s $15 billion lawsuit against the New York Times, saying “The complaint is decidedly improper and impermissible.”
The judge blasted the 85-page filing as a sprawling screed that read like “a megaphone for public relations” rather than a proper court pleading.
In a four-page order, the judge said the complaint violated court requirement for a “short and plain statement,” citing pages of repetitive allegations and political rhetoric only loosely tied to the two defamation counts. The court struck the filing but gave Trump 28 days to submit a streamlined version capped at 40 pages.
The order emphasized that federal pleadings must be “simple, concise, and direct” so defendants can fairly respond. Instead, most of Trump’s complaint recounted his business and media history and leveled broad accusations unmoored from the elements of defamation, the judge wrote.
The decision does not weigh in on the merits of Trump’s claims. But the judge warned that any amended complaint must “omit extraneous narrative” and stick to facts supporting a plausible cause of action.
Filed in the Middle District of Florida, the case—President Donald J. Trump v. New York Times Company—targets the newspaper and multiple corporate and individual defendants. If Trump refiles within the court’s limits, the case will proceed under those constraints; if not, the suit is likely to be dismissed.
