Trump says he will sue the New York Times for $15bn

The Paper - Donald Trump has announced he will file a $15bn lawsuit for defamation and libel against the New York Times, calling it a virtual “mouthpiece” for the Democrats.

“Today, I have the Great Honor of bringing a $15 Billion Dollar Defamation and Libel Lawsuit against The New York Times,” Trump said in a post on his social media platform Truth Social.

The statement comes after the US President last week threatened to sue the newspaper for its reporting related to a sexually suggestive note and drawing given to Epstein, which the White House has denied as authentic.

Trump has accused the paper of lying about him, his family and businesses, as well as Republican-led movements and ideologies such as the America First Movement, and Make America Great Again, or MAGA.

The suit would be filed in Florida, he added, but gave no further details.

Last year, Trump was ordered to pay the newspaper nearly $400,000 in legal fees over a failed $100m lawsuit that accused it of an “insidious plot” to obtain his tax records.

A judge had said the lawsuit claims “fail as a matter of constitutional law”.

Earlier this month the White House denied that the alleged letter from Trump, which featured a drawing of a woman’s body, was authentic and said the President “did not draw this picture, and he did not sign it”.

The Wall Street Journal. had first reported the existence of a letter in July, which Trump at the time denied.

He said at the time: “These are not my words, not the way I talk. Also, I don’t draw pictures.”

Trump subsequently filed a $10bn (£7.5bn) lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal’s parent company Dow Jones and its owner Rupert Murdoch over the claims.