A Florida federal judge ended Trump Media & Technology Group’s $2.78 billion defamation lawsuit against the Washington Post on July 2, 2026, ruling there was no evidence the newspaper acted with the legal malice required for public figures to win such cases.
Judge Thomas Barber granted summary judgment to the Post after finding that reporter Drew Harwell conducted a thorough investigation before publishing a May 13, 2023 article about Trump Media’s finances. The article reported that Trump Media had received an $8 million loan from an obscure financial entity, ES Family Trust, and had paid a $240,000 finder’s fee to Entoro Securities, a brokerage associated with the CEO of Trump Media’s prospective merger partner. According to the article, neither transaction was disclosed to the Securities and Exchange Commission or to shareholders.
Trump Media claimed the article’s statements about the finder’s fee were false and defamatory, narrowing its lawsuit to just two statements after three rounds of motions to dismiss. The company argued it “never paid or agreed to pay” the $240,000 fee. However, the judge found that Harwell had reviewed internal Trump Media documents, interviewed whistleblower Will Wilkerson and his attorneys, examined an Entoro invoice, and reviewed a referral fee agreement before publication. Harwell also contacted Trump Media eight days before the article ran to offer the company an opportunity to comment.
Under U.S. defamation law, public figures—including Trump Media—must prove by “clear and convincing evidence” that a publisher knew a statement was false or entertained serious doubts about its truth. This “actual malice” standard, established in the 1964 Supreme Court case New York Times v. Sullivan, gives media outlets broad protection when reporting on matters of public concern. Judge Barber ruled that Harwell’s meticulous reporting “rebuts any argument” that the finder’s fee statements were made with actual malice, making it impossible for a jury to find against the Post on summary judgment.
The ruling reflects a pattern in recent defamation cases against media outlets. According to reporting this year, Trump has filed at least nine lawsuits against major media companies since 2020, seeking tens of billions of dollars in damages. The Post previously won dismissal of defamation claims by Trump Media in March 2024 over the same article. A federal judge also dismissed Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal in April 2026, and his $15 billion suit against the New York Times was struck down in September 2025—both on grounds that Trump failed to meet the actual malice standard required of public figures.
Sources
- Reason Magazine — Judge Thomas Barber’s order granting summary judgment and the legal reasoning behind the ruling
- Law360 — Case details, filing history, and the judge’s July 2, 2026 order ending the $2.78 billion suit
- Reuters — Pattern of Trump’s media lawsuits since 2020 and track record in court
