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Trump threatens to sue Des Moines Register over poll, promises more lawsuits against news outlets after ABC News settlement
The announcement Saturday that ABC has agreed to commit $15 million toward President-elect Donald Trump’s presidential foundation to settle a defamation lawsuit was a rare victory for Trump in years of lawsuits against news organizations.
In the settlement’s aftermath, Trump said Monday at a news conference in Florida that he planned to sue the Des Moines Register over a poll and vowed to continue filing suits against news outlets whom he’s long accused of bias.
He complained that the pollster, J. Ann Selzer, “said I was going to lose by three or four points,” after previous Iowa surveys showed he’d win the state easily, “by 20 points.” Trump won the state by 13 points.
“In my opinion, it was fraud and it was election interference,” he said, adding, “we’ll probably be filing a major lawsuit against them today or tomorrow.”
Lark-Marie Anton, a spokesperson for the Des Moines Register, said in a statement to CBS News, “We have acknowledged that the Selzer/Des Moines Register pre-election poll did not reflect the ultimate margin of President Trump’s Election Day victory in Iowa by releasing the poll’s full demographics, crosstabs, weighted and unweighted data, as well as a technical explanation from pollster Ann Selzer.”
“We stand by our reporting on the matter and believe a lawsuit would be without merit,” Anton said.
Such litigation is unusual for presidents to pursue, according to Ohio University professor Aimee Edmondson. Trump has a long history of suing the media, she said, though his lawsuits aren’t often successful.
“It’s a rarity that he would actually win a settlement against a journalistic outlet, when I saw that I was astonished,” said Edmondson, who researches media law and journalism history.
Trump has sued CNN, The Washington Post and the New York Times multiple times, including during his first term in office. It’s a tactic he pursued both before and after his presidency, suing journalists and their book publishers, and major outlets — including CBS News — for coverage he didn’t like.
Edmondson said the lawsuits appear to have an added benefit for Trump.
“He has really done a good job repeating that message that journalists are the enemy of the people,” Edmondson said.
During the press conference on Monday, Trump said, “I feel I have to do this,” and added, “It costs a lot of money to do it but we have to straighten out the press.”
While Trump’s recent lawsuits have focused on outlets that are subsidiaries of deep pocketed corporations, Edmondson said she worries they might inspire others to sue “mom and pop” local media in response to coverage.
“Think of the state and county local officials, who might say, “Oh, this will be a great way to punish local journalists,” Edmondson said.
Trump’s suits often demand extraordinary figures from the defendants. Trump sued Timothy O’Brien after the journalist wrote a book questioning Trump’s claims about his own net worth, demanding $5 billion in damages. The case was dismissed, and Trump later told a reporter for The Washington Post that he knew he couldn’t win the suit.
“I spent a couple of bucks on legal fees, and they spent a whole lot more. I did it to make his life miserable, which I’m happy about,” Trump said.
Trump sued ABC for defamation after anchor George Stephanolopous said that Trump had been “found liable for rape” during a March 10 interview with Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina.
A unanimous civil jury in 2023 found Trump liable for sexual abuse of the writer E. Jean Carroll. The sexual abuse claim included an allegation that Trump forced his fingers inside Carroll against her will. The federal judge who presided over the case later wrote, “the jury implicitly found Mr. Trump did in fact digitally rape Ms. Carroll.”
Trump sued CBS News in October, accusing the network of “deceitful” editing of a “60 Minutes” interview with Vice President Kamala Harris.
Trump has claimed CBS News edited Harris’ response to a question about conflict in the Middle East in order to mislead the public. He reiterated that claim Monday.
“They took Kamala’s answer which was a crazy answer, a horrible answer, and they took the whole answer out and they replaced it with something else she said later in the interview,” Trump claimed.
CBS News said in a statement after the lawsuit was filed that its claims are “completely without merit.” The network said it will vigorously defend against the lawsuit.
CBS filed a motion to dismiss the suit on Dec. 6, arguing the case has no merit and that it should not have been filed in Texas, which is home to neither the defendant or plaintiff. CBS is New York-based, and Trump lives in Florida.
Trump has also sued journalist Bob Woodward and publisher Simon & Schuster in January 2023, claiming Woodward publicly released interview recordings made for the book “Rage” without Trump’s permission.
Trump said Monday that Woodward “didn’t quote me properly from the tapes,” and he claimed Woodward “sold the tapes, which he wasn’t allowed to do.”
The publisher’s parent company at the time, Paramount Global, was named as a defendant as well. Paramount is also CBS News’ parent company.
Soon after the case was filed, Simon & Schuster and Woodward released a joint statement calling the lawsuit meritless.
“All these interviews were on the record and recorded with President Trump’s knowledge and agreement,” the statement said. “Moreover, it is in the public interest to have this historical record in Trump’s own words. We are confident that the facts and the law are in our favor.”
The case is ongoing, and the defendants have asked a judge to dismiss the suit.
In 2022, Trump sued the board that bestows journalism’s most prestigious award, the Pulitzer Prize. The case revolves around a statement the board made reaffirming its decision to give The New York Times and The Washington Post an award in 2018 for reporting on Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
An investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller III later found “insufficient evidence to charge a broader conspiracy.”
Trump said Monday, “it turned out to be a hoax and they were exactly wrong.”
The Pulitzer Prize Board put out its statement after Trump called for it to revoke its 2018 awards. The board said two independent reviews found “no passages or headlines, contentions or assertions in any of the winning submissions were discredited by facts that emerged subsequent to the conferral of the prizes.”
A Florida judge in July rejected an effort by the defendants to have the case dismissed. It remains ongoing.
President-elect Donald Trump’s criminal conviction in state court remains on the books Monday, after a New York judge rejected an effort by Trump to have the case tossed based on a landmark Supreme Court ruling.
Justice Juan Merchan found that a July Supreme Court ruling granting Trump presidential immunity for official acts did not preclude a jury from finding him guilty after a criminal trial this spring.
Merchan wrote that evidence shown at trial pertained “entirely to unofficial conduct.”
This is a developing story and will be updated.
As unexplained drone sightings along the East Coast trigger investigations and demands from officials for more information, a wave of online speculation has filled the void as amateur sleuths seek to solve the mystery themselves.
One Facebook group called “New Jersey Mystery Drones – let’s solve it” has surged to over 73,000 members in recent days, becoming a hub for users to share their drone sightings and speculate on the source of the mysterious activity.
George Gary, a New Jersey resident who joined the Facebook group, told CBS News that he was sitting in his car in Moorestown when he saw what he said were “multiple drones” in the sky. “I’m honestly not sure what’s behind them,” he said, speculating that it could be connected to government activity. “I’m really curious to find out.”
New Jersey resident Vanessa Grierson, who also said she has seen drones, told CBS News she joined the Facebook group to find out what others were seeing. “It’s alarming that there are still no answers,” she said.
Across social media, users have shared theories that range from foreign interference to UFOs to hobbyist activity.
The FBI and Department of Homeland Security issued a joint statement last week saying there is “no evidence at this time” that the reported drone sightings pose a threat to national security or public safety, or have any foreign connection.
But state and local leaders have been pushing for more information and a stronger response.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said Sunday he is urging federal authorities to allocate more resources to investigate the sightings, while New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced that a drone detection system is being deployed in the state.
In some cases, people mistake planes for drones
The number of drones flying over the East Coast and the identity of those behind the activity remain unclear. White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said Monday that the FBI has received about 5,000 tips of reported drone sightings in the last few weeks, “about 100 of which they felt needed to be followed up on.”
Authorities say many of the reported drone sightings could be aircraft or helicopters operating from the region’s numerous airports, as residents increasingly turn their attention to the skies in search of answers.
New Jersey Sen. Andy Kim said he went on patrol with police on Thursday night to find out more about the drones. In a lengthy X thread, Kim said he “concluded that most of the possible drone sightings that were pointed out to me were almost certainly planes.”
Kirby said many other reports were determined to be “a combination of lawful commercial drones, hobbyist drones and law enforcement drones.”
In addition, unrelated videos have sparked confusion. On Friday, a video was widely shared and said to show a mysterious drone seemingly “shooting” at the ground. However, CBS News traced the footage to a military training exercise at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst.
People have also shared old videos from different contexts. One widely shared clip, allegedly showing drones over New York, is at least four years old.
Officials respond
Rep. Mike Waltz, a Republican from Florida who is President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for national security adviser, said on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” that the lack of information highlights lapses in authority between local law enforcement and federal agencies like the Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security.
“I think Americans are finding it hard to believe we can’t figure out where these are coming from,” Waltz said. “It’s pointing to gaps in our capabilities and in our ability to clamp down on what’s going on here. And we need to get to the bottom of it.”
Democratic Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey said there is a “growing sense of uncertainty and urgency across the state” despite statements from federal investigators assuring residents that the drones do not pose public safety threats.
“As such, I urge you to share any relevant information about these drone sightings with the public,” Booker said. “Without transparency, I believe that rumors, fear, and misinformation will continue to spread.”
Shooting down drones?
Some social media users have suggested that they plan to shoot down the drones if they veer too close to their homes. President-elect Trump also suggested shooting down the drones, though he did not clarify who should take such action.
However, shooting down a drone is a federal crime.
The Federal Aviation Administration classifies drones as aircraft, meaning damaging or destroying them is a violation of the Aircraft Sabotage Act.
Beyond legal risks, firing at drones poses a serious safety hazard and could lead to injuries.
Washington — President-elect Trump is meeting with TikTok CEO Shou Chew on Monday at his Mar-a-Lago estate, according to sources familiar with the meeting.
The news was first reported by CNN.
A spokesperson for TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
At a news conference earlier Monday, Trump had warm words about TikTok and its near-term future.
“We’ll take a look at TikTok. You know, I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok, because I won youth by 34 points. And there are those that say that TikTok has something to do with that,” Trump said when asked about how he would stop a ban. Harris won 54% of voters under 30, but Trump made inroads.
During his first term in the White House, Trump tried to ban the app.
President Biden earlier this year signed into law a bill passed by Congress requiring TikTok and its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, face a Jan. 19 deadline to cut ties or be banned in the U.S. The companies have tried to delay the deadline pending a Supreme Court review, but a federal appeals court, which upheld the law, denied the request last week. The companies asked the Supreme Court on Monday to temporarily pause the law.
“A modest delay in enforcing the Act will create breathing room for this Court to conduct an orderly review and the new Administration to evaluate this matter — before this vital channel for Americans to communicate with their fellow citizens and the world is closed,” the emergency application said.
The filing asked the Supreme Court to make a decision on the request by Jan. 6 so ByteDance and TikTok can “coordinate with their service providers to perform the complex task of shutting down the TikTok platform only in the United States” if the justices decline.
A 90-day extension could be granted if a sale is in process by the deadline. But TikTok has argued that a sale is unfeasible and the Chinese government opposes the sale of the algorithm which powers the app.
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