Properly earlier than his oh-so-illustrious political profession resulted in a really breathtaking variety of legal fees, Donald Trump was no stranger to a courtroom. By the point he turned the Republican nominee in 2016, Trump and his companies had been concerned in over 4,000 lawsuits. His litigious streak has continued, resulting in a second time period the place Trump is actively litigating a number of circumstances. Right here’s a rundown of a number of the huge lawsuits that Trump, the personal citizen, is pursuing whereas additionally nonetheless being president.
So mad in regards to the media
Trump has not but sued CNN or The New York Instances over their protection of Iran. He did, nonetheless, have his private lawyer ship them letters threatening to sue, which is a fully unhinged factor to do, and a deliberate blurring of the strains between his function as president and his function as a non-public citizen.
Late Tuesday evening, Paramount, the dad or mum firm of CBS, introduced it could pay Trump $16 million to settle his whiny lawsuit the place he alleged the community had deceptively edited an interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris.
That’s nearly the identical quantity Disney paid in December 2024 to settle Trump’s baseless defamation lawsuit towards ABC. To make issues look barely much less like a straight-up bribe, these tens of millions belong to Trump’s eventual presidential library somewhat than Trump personally. Nope, nonetheless seems like a bribe.
Trump additionally nonetheless has a lawsuit towards Iowa pollster Ann Selzer and the Des Moines Register over her ballot that predicted Harris would win Iowa. Properly, he has two of them now, really. Trump initially filed his go well with in Iowa state courtroom, however Gannett, the dad or mum firm of the Register, eliminated the case to federal courtroom.
In June, Trump tried to get the case again in state courtroom, however the federal choose denied the request. So Trump determined to voluntarily dismiss his federal case and refile in state courtroom. That didn’t actually work out both.
The choose within the federal case, U.S. District Decide Rebecca Goodgame Ebinger, struck Trump’s voluntary dismissal from the file, saying that as a result of Trump had earlier filed a discover of attraction to the Eighth Circuit, that courtroom now has jurisdiction over sure points of the case. Have been Ebinger to grant the voluntary dismissal of the district courtroom case, she would functionally be dismissing Trump’s attraction as effectively, which the district courtroom doesn’t have the facility to do. So, Trump must voluntarily dismiss his federal attraction first.
Sure, that is wonky procedural stuff, however that’s what legal professionals are for. Sadly, on this occasion, it seems that Trump’s private attorneys aren’t super-sharp about primary courtroom guidelines. However relaxation assured—their shopper appears to have all of the money and time on the planet to maintain pursuing this in no matter courtroom will take it.
So mad in regards to the cash he owes
Throughout his time away from the presidency, Trump misplaced not one, however two circumstances to E. Jean Carroll. In Could 2023, a jury discovered him responsible for sexually abusing Carroll when he assaulted her in a division retailer dressing room within the Nineteen Nineties and awarded Carroll $5 million. Then, in January 2024, a jury awarded Carroll $83.3 million in a separate case over Trump’s defamation of her, following the Could 2023 verdict. He’s nonetheless battling to make each of these go away.
The complete Second Circuit Courtroom of Appeals simply declined to rethink the $5 million verdict, which possible means the subsequent cease is the pleasant confines of the US Supreme Courtroom. And in case you’re questioning if Trump will attempt to argue that he’s in some way immune from this civil lawsuit a couple of sexual assault he dedicated 20 years earlier than turning into president? Completely. How can we make sure? As a result of that’s principally the argument he simply made to the Second Circuit in his try and overturn the $83 million verdict.
Throughout oral arguments final month, Trump’s private legal professional mentioned that the decision towards Trump “severely damages the presidency” and that “President Trump was denied the safety of presidential immunity” when the trial choose let Carroll’s case proceed. It appears extremely self-evident that Trump’s presidential immunity doesn’t attain again in time to guard him from the results of his actions a long time in the past. Then once more, nobody might have anticipated the Supreme Courtroom to make up that immunity doctrine out of entire fabric. Count on this one to go all the best way up as effectively, and brace your self for the potential of a very, actually silly final result.
So mad about his legal conviction
Successful the 2024 election freed Trump from the handfuls of federal legal fees he confronted, but it surely couldn’t undo his conviction in New York state on 34 felony counts over his falsification of enterprise data to cover his payoff to Stormy Daniels throughout the 2016 election. He’s persevering with to attraction that within the state courts, however he’s additionally begging the Second Circuit to let him transfer the legal case to federal courtroom.
It needs to be in federal courtroom, per Trump, as a result of, you guessed it, he believes his presidential immunity covers his legal acts earlier than turning into president. It also needs to be in federal courtroom, Trump’s legal professionals advised the Second Circuit, as a result of the scope of his immunity needs to be determined “by this courtroom and the Supreme Courtroom, not by New York State courts.”
In different phrases, the aim, as ever, is to get in entrance of a Supreme Courtroom that has confirmed remarkably receptive to letting Trump off the hook.
So mad about Russia, nonetheless?
This case, the place Trump sued the Pulitzer Prize Board for defaming him, has flown below the radar for some time, but it surely’s heating up now in ways in which spotlight precisely how unhealthy it’s that the sitting president can also be a non-public litigant.
However first: How did the board defame him, precisely? By refusing to retract awards to the Washington Submit and The New York Instances for his or her protection of Russian interference within the 2016 election. Trump demanded the awards be retracted, and the Pulitzer Board indulged him excess of they need to have, conducting an impartial overview of all of the tales. The board concluded that nothing within the award-winning tales had been discredited and declined to retract the awards, and Trump says that defames him.
It is a ridiculous case, and it ought to have been dismissed out of hand. However Trump drew an exceedingly pleasant three-judge panel in Florida state courtroom that dominated, in February 2025, that he might proceed. How pleasant, precisely? Peep the concurrence by Decide Ed Artau, which kicks off by quoting a few of Trump’s favourite phrases and glowingly recaps Trump’s criticism.
That concurrence served as a pleasant little sizzle reel for Artau, who Trump rewarded two months later with a nomination to the federal bench. And, as Jay Willis factors out over at Balls and Strikes, Artau could have identified he was into account when he wrote that suck-up concurrence.
It is a not-great collision between Trump’s function as president and his function as personal litigant. He’s capable of reward judges who rule in his favor in personal issues with a reward that he can solely lengthen due to his function as president.
It will get worse, really. The Pulitzer Board has been making an attempt to place this case on maintain till Trump is not president, given the complexities of litigating towards the sitting president and the potential battle between a state courtroom’s train of judicial energy and the president’s federal Article II powers. The board identified that Trump has argued in different civil circumstances that litigation would intervene along with his duties as president, warranting a keep till the tip of his time period.
Nope, mentioned that pleasant appeals panel in Could. Solely Trump can invoke the privilege of claiming he’s too busy being president to take part in litigation. That appellate panel went even farther, saying that if Trump sues somebody, that’s cool as a result of he’s “uniquely outfitted to find out easy methods to use his time, to evaluate the eye a lawsuit would require, and to determine whether or not the lawsuit will divert him from his official enterprise.”
But when somebody sues Trump, he will get to determine if that’s too onerous. For sure, the Pulitzer Board is interesting this nonsense as much as the state Supreme Courtroom.
So mad at his former enterprise companions
As a result of the president now runs personal for-profit corporations whereas additionally being president, mentioned president now will get hauled into courtroom over personal enterprise disputes. Additionally, as a result of mentioned president is a grifter with no loyalty, he will get hauled into courtroom as a result of his enterprise associates allege that he screwed them over.
Two cofounders of Fact Social, Trump’s low-energy social media platform, sued Trump in 2024, alleging he tried to dilute their stake within the firm and ice them out of the preliminary public providing. When the case was earlier than the Delaware Chancery Courtroom in Could 2025, Trump argued the go well with needs to be dismissed or stayed till the tip of his time period, as he’s immune from civil fits whereas in workplace.
Sure, it’s precisely what the Pulitzer Board was referring to. When Trump is sued, he’s the president, and you can’t take the president away from his necessary duties with lawsuits. When Trump sues folks, he’s a non-public particular person who additionally occurs to be president, and has assessed whether or not he has the time to tug events into limitless litigation.
It’s a double normal that exists just for Trump, one other manner that he’s above the legislation. Heads, Trump wins. Tails, all of us lose.
