A federal judge on Monday dismissed President Trump’s $ 10 billion defamation lawsuit against Wall Street Journal (WSJ), a setback for his legal campaign against media firms he accuses of treating him unfairly.The case was one of several that Trump, a Republican, has filed during his presidency against major media outlets over reporting he has characterised as unfair or false. That has led to concern among Democrats and press freedom advocates that he is seeking to use defamation cases to quell critical coverage.Trump’s lawsuit said the Rupert Murdoch-owned newspaper tarnished his reputation with an article describing a birthday card to deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein bearing Trump’s signature. Trump said the card is fake, even after it was released by lawmakers investigating Epstein’s case. Trump filed the lawsuit in July 2025.Miami-based US district court judge Darrin P Gayles, an appointee of former President Obama, said in tossing the case that Trump had not come close to meeting the “actual malice” standard that public figures must clear in defamation. That means they must prove not only that a statement about them was false but also that the media outlet or person who made the statement knew or should have known that it was false. “This complaint comes nowhere close to this standard,” Gayles wrote. “Quite the opposite.”Gayles wrote that WSJ’s reporters reached out to Trump for comment beforehand, and printed his denial. That allowed readers to decide for themselves what to conclude, cutting against Trump’s assertion that the newspaper acted with actual malice, the judge said. Gayles said Trump could file an amended version of the lawsuit by April 27. A spokesman for Trump’s legal team said he would refile the lawsuit. Neither News Corp nor Dow Jones responded to requests for comment. This is a Reuters story.
