He has just won against the ABC channel and its star presenter George Stephanopoulos, who were forced to pay him $16 million in damages. CBS, the New York Times, and the Washington Post are in the crosshairs. Others could follow.
It is an unprecedented victory: last Saturday, the ABC News channel and its star presenter George Stephanopoulos broadcast a discreet press release in which they expressed their “regrets towards Donald J. Trump”. At issue: the interview with Nancy Mace, congresswoman (deputy) and supporter of the former and future president, during which the journalist asked her how she could support him when she herself was a victim of rape at the age 16 years old. It was March 10 and Trump had just been ordered to pay $83 million to E. Jean Carroll after being convicted of sexual assault. During his particularly tense exchange with Nancy Mace, Stephanopoulos incorrectly used the word “rape” and not “sexual assault” regarding E. Jean Carroll. Error that Trump’s lawyers used to sue him for defamation.
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The ABC News channel then tried to dismiss the complaint, filed by Trump in Florida, which is favorable to him. Federal Judge Cecilia Altonaga, appointed by George W. Bush, objected. The trial was therefore to take place in June 2025. But the ABC News channel, a Disney subsidiary, preferred to compromise to avoid the legal standoff. She agreed to pay the astronomical sum of 15 million dollars, to which is added 1 million in reimbursement of Donald Trump’s legal fees. This amount will not be paid directly to the future president but to a foundation created to finance a “presidential museum”. For the channel and the journalist, this amicable settlement, made public when it is usually kept confidential, is a total humiliation: we speak of “capitulation”. For Trump, on the other hand, it is a symbol worth gold, because George Stephanopoulos is a former spokesperson for Bill Clinton at the White House.
Kash Patel, Trump’s nominee to head the FBI, warned that he would ‘go after the conspirators in the media’
Donald Trump is no stranger to lawsuits against the press. Until now, he lost all or almost all of them but this precedent could change the situation. Other media are in its crosshairs. Starting with the CBS show “60 Minutes”, which, according to the future president, would have edited too favorably the Kamala Harris interview broadcast on October 6, a month before the election. The future president used the same process as with Stephanopoulos: his lawyers filed a complaint in Texas, a very Republican state, in a court headed by Matthew J. Kacsmaryk, a federal judge appointed by Trump in 2019. The amount of damages and Interest demanded is extravagant: 10 billion dollars. CBS, which pleads good faith, is trying to have the case dismissed. The complaint is continuing.
Another prime target for Trump: the New York Times. The week before the election, the daily received a ten-page letter accusing it of publishing three “misleading,” “malicious,” and “defamatory” articles, and demanding an apology and retraction. The same day, the Washington Post was, in a complaint filed with the Federal Election Commission, accused of making illegal in-kind contributions to Kamala Harris’ campaign for promoting articles favorable to her. Democrat. In recent days, Vanity Fair and the New Yorker magazines were targeted not by Trump himself, but by his candidate for Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth. The latter’s lawyer informed the two newspapers that if they mentioned the allegations of sexual abuse and alcoholism which concern him, they exposed themselves to defamation proceedings.
Kash Patel, candidate nominated by Trump to head the FBI, warned that he would “pursue all the conspirators, whether they are in the government or in the media”. During the campaign, Donald Trump repeatedly expressed his wish to withdraw the broadcasting licenses from television channels that he does not like, notably ABC, CBS and NBC. A threat taken seriously. Because the American media are doing poorly in general. The Washington Post loses more than $70 million a year. Since the November 5 election, the left-wing channel MSNBC has seen its audience halved. That of CNN fell by 46%. Only Fox News, pro-Trump, is doing well (+12%). Already the master of the Republican Party, the House of Representatives, the Senate and the Supreme Court, Donald Trump will be inaugurated President of the United States on January 20. All that remains is to tame the media, these “enemies of the people”…
