On July 7, 2026, a federal judge threw out the $3.8 billion defamation lawsuit that Trump Media and Technology Group, the president's social-media company, filed in 2023 against The Washington Post.
U.S. District Judge Thomas Barber granted the Post summary judgment, finding that Trump Media could not show the newspaper acted with “actual malice,” the standard a public figure must meet to win a defamation case. The suit centered on a May 13, 2023 article by reporter Drew Harwell headlined “Trust linked to porn-friendly bank could gain a stake in Trump's Truth Social.” After three rounds of motions, the claim had been narrowed to two statements about a finder's fee. The judge noted that before publishing, Harwell had reviewed internal Trump Media documents, interviewed a whistleblower and his attorneys, and examined an invoice and a referral-fee agreement, the opposite of reckless disregard for the truth.
Trump Media said it is considering an appeal and cast the outcome as a victory, claiming the Post “finally admitted its harmful story was false.” The court did no such thing; it dismissed the company's case. The multibillion-dollar suit fits a broader pattern of Trump and his companies using large defamation claims against news organizations, several of which have been dismissed (see Judge Dismisses Trump's $10 Billion Epstein Letter Suit Against the WSJ and Murdoch a Second Time, With Prejudice).