President Donald Trump said Thursday that his legal team is expanding his refiled defamation lawsuit against The New York Times to include Siena polling, arguing the survey work produced “fake results” and demanding records on how the figures were calculated.
Why It Matters
Trump initially sued The New York Times for $15 billion in September 2025, but U.S. District Judge Steven Merrday dismissed the case, accusing Trump’s legal team of packing the complaint with “tedious and burdensome” language unrelated to the core legal issues.
Trump later filed an amended complaint. The Times has characterized the revised filing as a meritless effort meant to intimidate the newsroom—an attempt, it says, to “stifle independent reporting” and generate “P.R. attention.”
What to Know
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said his lawsuit will now include polling conducted under the Times/Siena banner.
“The Times Siena Poll, which is always tremendously negative to me, especially just before the Election of 2024, where I won in a Landslide, will be added to my lawsuit against The Failing New York Times,” Trump wrote.
He also claimed his attorneys have demanded documentation about how the survey results were produced.
“Our lawyers have demanded that they keep all Records, and how they ‘computed’ these fake results — Not just the fact that it was heavily skewed toward Democrats,” Trump wrote. “They will be held fully responsible for all of their Radical Left lies and wrongdoing!”
The dispute centers on polling released in the final stretch of the 2024 campaign. A Times/Siena College poll published October 25, 2024, found Trump and then–Vice President Kamala Harris effectively tied heading into Election Day, with each around 48 percent support.
According to the Times’ write-up accompanying the poll, the survey was conducted over three days, from October 20 through October 23, 2024.
That poll also reported that voters preferred Trump over Harris on the economy (52 percent to 45 percent) and immigration (54 percent to 43 percent). Harris led Trump on abortion (55 percent to 40 percent) and “democracy” (51 percent to 45 percent).
A separate final poll published November 3, 2024, found Trump leading in only one swing state—Arizona—while Harris was ahead in Nevada, North Carolina, Wisconsin, and Georgia, and the race was even in Pennsylvania and Michigan.
Trump went on to win all of those states in the 2024 election, with his narrowest margin in Wisconsin (under one point) and his largest in Arizona (just under six points).
What People Are Saying
In a later Truth Social post, Trump called polling he views as inaccurate a form of misconduct and urged consequences for those who publish it.
“Fake and Fraudulent Polling should be, virtually, a criminal offense,” Trump wrote, arguing that election polling in 2020 was “knowingly wrong” and intended to “influence the Election.”
“You can’t do much better than that, and yet if people examined The Failing New York Times, ABC Fake News, NBC Fake News, CBS Fake News, Low Ratings CNN, or the now defunct MSDNC, Polls were all fraudulent, and bore nothing even close to the final results,” he wrote. “Something has to be done about Fraudulent Polling.”
He added that “Even the Polls of FoxNews and The Wall Street Journal have been, over the years, terrible!” while claiming there are “great Pollsters” the media avoids using. Trump concluded: “Isn’t it sad what has happened to American Journalism, but I am going to do everything possible to keep this Polling SCAM from moving forward!”
The New York Times, responding in October after the amended complaint was filed, rejected Trump’s claims and said it would fight the case.
“As we said when this was first filed and again after the judge’s ruling to strike it: This lawsuit has no merit. Nothing has changed today. This is merely an attempt to stifle independent reporting and generate P.R. attention, but The New York Times will not be deterred by intimidation tactics.”
