Ledger · 2016 campaign · № 33

Open up the libel laws to sue news organizations

Never delivered
“I'm going to open up our libel laws so when they write purposely negative and horrible and false articles, we can sue them and win lots of money.”
Promised
, Campaign rally, Fort Worth, Texas
Re-promised
12 times with a fresh deadline
Topic
Transparency & records
Era
2016 campaign

What happened

Libel law is set by state law and Supreme Court precedent, chiefly New York Times v. Sullivan, and no federal statute or ruling changed it during the term. PolitiFact rated the promise broken.

Sources

  1. Open up libel laws: Trump failed to 'open up our libel laws' PolitiFact Trump-O-Meter, Jul 15, 2020