United States President Donald Trump has filed an amended $15 billion defamation lawsuit against The New York Times, book publisher Penguin Random House, and several reporters, after a federal judge in Florida dismissed his initial complaint last month on procedural grounds.

The 40-page amended filing, submitted Thursday, follows an order by US District Court Judge Steven Merryday, who gave Trump 28 days to refile a complaint that meets federal standards. The judge had rejected the former 85-page filing on September 19, describing it as overly long, repetitive, and inconsistent with Rule 8(a) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which requires “a short and plain statement” of a claim.

Merryday said the earlier document “consumes 85 pages” for only two counts of defamation, adding that it contained “many, often repetitive, and laudatory (toward President Trump) but superfluous allegations.” He further criticized it for being “an improper and impermissible place for the tedious and burdensome aggregation of prospective evidence.”

New filing focuses on targeted claims

The revised complaint retains much of Trump’s core argument while reducing its scope. It names investigative reporters Suzanne Craig and Russ Buettner, along with NYT White House correspondent Peter Baker, but drops journalist Michael S. Schmidt from the list of defendants.

According to the new filing, Trump is again seeking $15 billion in compensatory damages and additional punitive damages “to be determined upon trial.”

The complaint includes an itemized list of dozens of alleged defamatory statements drawn from specific articles and from the book "Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father’s Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success", authored by Craig and Buettner.

The lawsuit challenges the book’s description of Trump’s multimillion-dollar inheritance as the result of “fraudulent tax evasion schemes” involving his father, Fred C. Trump, and its suggestion that the elder Trump had “twisted the rules” of post–World War II housing programs to amass his fortune. It also disputes reporting that Trump was “discovered” for his television role on The Apprentice, arguing that he had long been a public figure before the show’s creation.

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Legal and political implications

Judge Merryday’s earlier dismissal did not evaluate the truthfulness of the claims, focusing instead on the complaint’s structure and tone. The case now returns to the court under tighter parameters, though legal experts say Trump still faces a steep challenge in proving defamation as a public figure, which under US law requires demonstrating “actual malice”: that the defendants knowingly published false information or acted with reckless disregard for the truth.

The lawsuit underscores Trump’s ongoing campaign against major media outlets, which he has repeatedly accused of spreading "fake news" to damage his reputation. Both The New York Times and Penguin Random House have previously stood by their reporting, with NYT describing similar past claims from Trump as “meritless.”

The court has yet to set a hearing date for the amended complaint.

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