Trump and His ‘Lawfare’

The mogul’s latest lawsuit claims that a poll published by a newspaper put him at a disadvantage in the state of Iowa

President-elect Donald Trump’s recent lawsuits against The Des Moines Register newspaper and pollster Ann Seltzer for election “interference” likely have ulterior and indeed intimidating motives.

Trump’s latest suit alleges that a poll published by the newspaper put him at a disadvantage in the state of Iowa, which he nonetheless won handily last Nov. 5.

That lawsuit comes after ABC agreed to pay $15 million to settle a case accusing anchor George Stephanopoulos of defamation when he asserted that Trump was found liable for rape during an interview although Trump was found liable for sexually abusing and defaming writer Jean Carroll.

But this is not the only lawsuit, nor is it expected to be the last, in the U.S. president-elect’s war against mainstream media that fail to report what he wants to hear.

The lawsuit against Seltzer and Gannett’s Des Moines Register seems very much a matter of ego, something of which the president-elect is frequently accused.

“[O]n the face of it, it just has the smell of being just furious at her for just saying at some point, ‘You could lose this election.’ But there just doesn’t seem to be any legal basis for it … except that he wants to punish her because she never should’ve said he could lose,” said Floyd Abrams, a renowned legal expert on the First Amendment. But the widespread impression is that Trump does not intend, by a long shot, to win all the lawsuits he is expected to file against the press and his critics.

The real objective is to drag newspaper companies, and in some cases reporters and editors themselves, into protracted and costly lawsuits. Even without winning them, legal fees can be a brutal deterrent to criticism.

It is a long-standing tactic for Trump, who, as a real estate entrepreneur, was involved in more than 4,000 lawsuits, many of them brought by small or medium-sized suppliers seeking payment from Trump’s companies and who, after delays, were forced to settle accept unfavorable terms.

The legal process can also be a form of political payback, and Trump has threatened to sue dozens of his critics inside and outside the political establishment, and even the media and academia, for speaking out against him.

But for many, it is all about authoritarianism. It is “precisely what authoritarians do,” said Colby Hall, cofounder of the journalism magazine Mediaite.

“And I think he’s trying to send a message that, you know, ‘You write negative stuff about me or treat me as I see unfairly. I’m going to come after you with lawsuits.’ Now, he’s a billionaire. He’s got money to pay lawyers. This is not an official government lawsuit. This is just him and his campaign.”