Trump’s Truth Social Parent Company Sues 20 Media Outlets

Robert Burnson, Bloomberg News

Former US President Donald Trump during a trial at New York State Supreme Court in New York, US, on Monday, Nov. 6, 2023. Photographer: David Dee Delgado/Getty Images/Bloomberg , Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- The company behind former President Donald Trump’s Truth Social wants $1.5 billion in damages from news organizations which erroneously reported that the social media platform had lost $73 million.

Lawyers for Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. said in a lawsuit filed Monday in state court in Sarasota County, Florida, that the number was “an utter fabrication” and accused 20 news outlets of a “deliberate, malicious, and coordinated attack” against Truth Social.

Outlets including the Guardian and Reuters posted stories early last week about Truth Social’s financial condition, citing a regulatory filing by its merger partner, Digital World Acquisition Corporation, a special-purpose acquisition company. Later, at least some of the outlets, including Reuters, posted corrections on their stories.

Reuters and some other publications said they had reached the wrong figure by incorrectly counting a $50.5 million profit for 2022 as a loss. TMTG lawyers said that the “incredible circumstances” of all 20 outlets reporting the $73 million figure within hours of each other suggested a coordinated campaign.

“We dispute any allegation that Reuters defamed TMTG or intended to harm TMTG,” a Reuters spokesperson said in a statement. “We corrected our mistake as soon as TMTG made us aware of it, consistent with the Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. Reuters remains committed to reporting news fairly and accurately in the public interest.”

Launched last year, Truth Social became Trump’s social network of choice since he was banned from Twitter and suspended from Meta Platforms Inc.’s Facebook and Instagram after the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection. The former president has since been reinstated on those platforms, though has continued to post mainly on Truth Social.

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Representatives of the Guardian didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The case is Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. v. Guardian News and Media LLC, Circuit Court of Twelfth Judicial Circuit, Sarasota County, Florida.

(Updates with comment by Reuters spokesperson.)