Soon after winning reelection in November 2024, Donald Trump’s lawyers told a state judge in Delaware that a lawsuit brought against him by two co-founders of his social media company should be put on hold because a sitting president does not have time to deal with civil litigation.
Trump’s lawyers asked the judge, Lori Will, to “recognize a rule of temporary immunity that protects the Presidency from the diversions, distractions and harassment of state civil litigation.” The plaintiffs alleged that they were denied their agreed-upon payout for successfully launching Truth Social.
But before the judge could decide the immunity matter, Trump seemed to undercut his own argument by filing a civil lawsuit of his own against an Iowa newspaper, the Des Moines Register.
Trump, who for decades has used litigation to hit back at critics, subsequently filed at least five more lawsuits in his personal capacity, seeking tens of billions of dollars.
These were defamation suits targeting a book publisher, Penguin Random House, and three news organizations, the New York Times, opens new tab(NYT.N), opens new tab, the Wall Street Journal (NWSA.O), opens new tab and the BBC; a suit accusing a bank, JPMorgan Chase (JPM.N), opens new tab, of unlawfully closing his accounts; and a suit accusing the U.S. Internal Revenue Service of unlawfully failing to prevent disclosure of his tax returns to the media.