Donald Trump has been hit with an onslaught of lies and hoaxes from the media.
He's fighting to put an end to fake news.
And Trump has one legal strategy that could finally put a stop to the fake news media's lies.
Trump's Defamation Lawsuits Are Exposing the Media Bias Machine From the Inside
The American media hasn't been a news operation for years – it's been an unregistered Democrat Super PAC running a billion-dollar smear campaign against Donald Trump, and everybody knows it.
Now they're about to answer for it in federal court.
Former Assistant U.S. Attorney James Trusty told the Washington Times that winning at trial was never the only play.
"The risk to the media outlets is not just for Trump to meet the standard and win at trial," Trusty said, "but that the discovery process would be really embarrassing."
Discovery is the pre-trial phase where defendants must hand over internal emails, editorial memos, and private communications.
ABC paid $15 million to avoid it.
CBS's parent company Paramount paid $16 million to avoid it.
That's $31 million in protection money – paid not to defend their journalism, but to keep their newsroom emails out of a federal courtroom.
Think about what's sitting in those servers.
A decade of producers and anchors coordinating attacks on Trump, crafting narratives they knew were false, and congratulating each other for damaging him – every word of it one subpoena away from becoming public record.
They didn't settle because the lawsuits were frivolous.
They settled because the lawsuits were working.
The CBS 60 Minutes Lawsuit and ABC News Settlement Reveal the Same Dirty Secret
The CBS case started with "60 Minutes" and a Kamala Harris interview that aired in two different versions on the same day.
The polished, coherent version went on the flagship newsmagazine – the rambling, meandering version aired separately on "Face the Nation."
Trump's legal team argued CBS deliberately chose the more flattering cut to boost Harris heading into the 2024 election, and Paramount – which needed Trump administration approval for a pending merger – wrote the check to make the case go away.
CBS announced one policy change: future interviews would air live or unedited.
Then Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem sat down with CBS – and the network cut 25 seconds from her comments about a deported illegal alien anyway.
They cashed the check and went right back to editing Republicans.
ABC's situation was more straightforward.
Anchor George Stephanopoulos told his audience a jury had found Trump "liable for rape" in the bogus E. Jean Carroll case – which was an outright light.
Disney's ABC paid $15 million, posted an editor's note "expressing regret," and that was it.
No anchor faced discipline.
No correction aired in primetime.
No editorial standards changed.
Seven Fake News Outlets Still Face Trump Lawsuits – and the BBC Goes to Trial in 2027
The $31 million is the opening act.
Trump has seven lawsuits still in progress, including a $10 billion case against the BBC that a Florida federal judge cleared for a full 2027 trial – after rejecting the BBC's bid to delay discovery..
The BBC tried to shut down discovery before it started, and the judge said no.
Now the BBC must hand over internal editorial communications about why their producers spliced together two clips of Trump's January 6th speech – clips recorded nearly an hour apart – to make it look like he directly incited the Capitol riot.
The BBC has already admitted the edit was a mistake, and that admission is now evidence in a $10 billion federal lawsuit.
Trump is also suing The New York Times for $15 billion, The Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch for $10 billion, and the Des Moines Register for publishing a pre-election poll showing him trailing in Iowa – a state he carried by 13 points.
Historian Craig Shirley told the Washington Times this is about a power shift that has been a long time coming.
"For the last 50 years, power has been moving away from the presidency and towards the national media," Shirley said, "and with more power comes more irresponsibility."
Trump has now collected more than $56 million in combined settlements from media companies and Meta, with every dollar going to his future presidential library.
No president in American history has done this.
The last time a sitting president sued a media outlet and won was Teddy Roosevelt in 1913 – and Roosevelt's jury gave him 6 cents.
Trump's jury hasn't even seated yet, and the networks are already writing eight-figure checks.
The real exposure hasn't started.
Wait until those BBC emails hit a Miami courtroom in February 2027.
The legacy media will have to start reporting the truth or pay a hefty price.
Sources:
- Jeff Mordock, "Media tribalism and media bias: Trump's flurry of lawsuits changes the game for news outlets," The Washington Times, February 13, 2026.
- Staff, "The $31 million question: Are Trump's settlements actually changing journalism?" The Washington Times, February 14, 2026.
- Staff, "Trump v. BBC Defamation Lawsuit, $10B Trial Date Set For 2027," AllAboutLawyer, February 2026.
- Brian Stelter and Liam Reilly, "Paramount settles Trump's '60 Minutes' lawsuit with $16 million payout," CNN Business, July 2, 2025.
- Staff, "Trump's media and defamation lawsuits this year tie record," Axios, July 22, 2025.
- Staff, "Where is Trump's settlement money going?" Marketplace, August 22, 2025.
