MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Trump sues CNN for damages after derogatory remarks

Trump also announced he would be filing lawsuits against other major media companies

Former US President Donald Trump is seeking US$ 475 million in damages from CNN after the network referred to him as “Putin's lackey,” a “racist” and “Hitler,” among other epithets.

In a lawsuit filed at the US District Court in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Trump claims that the network had tried to use its enormous influence to dent his reputation in the minds of its viewers.

Trump argued that ”beyond simply highlighting any negative information about Plaintiff (Donald Trump) and ignoring all positive information about him, CNN has sought to use its enormous influence, purportedly as a 'trusted' news source, to defame Plaintiff.“

The former President's legal team also noted that these ”defamations“ have done ”nothing but increase in recent months,“ asserting that CNN ”fears“ that Trump will run in the 2024 presidential election.

The plaintiff's 29-page case includes attachments of articles and excerpts from the network's programming in which his proposals are likened to Adolf Hitler's incitement to hatred against Jews and included footage of the German dictator in a January 2022 special report by host Fareed Zakaria.

Trump argues that he is entitled to punitive damages because CNN used the term the ”Big Lie“ to describe Trump's ”stated concerns about the integrity of the election process for the 2020 presidential election.“ The expression ”Big Lie“ is, according to Trump's legal advisors, ”a direct reference to a tactic employed by Adolf Hitler“ to be found in his book Mein Kampf.

Trump also said in a statement that he would be filing lawsuits against other major media companies ”in the coming weeks and months,“ and that he could even take action against a congressional committee probing the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol by his supporters.

”'If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it,'“ Trump argued. ”CNN's campaign of dissuasion in the form of libel and slander against the [Trump] has only escalated in recent months as CNN fears [he] will run for president in 2024,” his legal team further stated.