Former President Donald Trump feels entitled to a payout after Dominion Voting Systems settled with Fox News.
Dominion and Fox agreed to settle a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit in April. The lawsuit is one of several addressing statements made by Fox News hosts regarding the legitimacy of the 2020 election. The lawsuit spawned from the privately-owned voting equipment company challenging Fox News’ claims about Dominion regarding the election. The companies agreed to settle for $787.5 million, and Trump feels it’s only fair if he receives compensation for the pain he suffered at the hands of media organizations as well.
“Dominion gets almost a Billion Dollars and I, after years of Fake News, Hoaxes, Scams, and Investigations, am entitled to NOTHING? Is that really the way it’s supposed to work? I don’t think so!” Trump posted on his social media outlet Truth Social on Tuesday afternoon.
His Truth Social rant today comes on the heels of the lawsuit his media group filed against The Washington Post on Saturday. That lawsuit, experts have said, “doesn’t make any sense.” Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG), which is behind the former president’s Truth Social platform, is seeking $3.78 billion in damages from the newspaper over claims it poses an “existential threat” to the company after engaging in a “years-long crusade” against the company.
“I don’t even think [Trump Media and Technology Group] is worth $1 billion, so how are they injured to the point where the business is worthless based on certain statements in this article? It just doesn’t make any sense,” Camron Dowlatshahi, a Los Angeles-based employment and defamation attorney, said.
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Newsweek reached out to a Trump spokesperson by email for comment.
Trump, who often labels news stories that are not in his favor to be “fake news”, has argued for years that the 2020 election was rigged in President Joe Biden’s favor, despite countless lawsuits finding otherwise. The claims led to national disarray, resulting in the siege of the U.S. Capitol in January 2021 and also becoming the backbone of Trump’s 2024 presidential election bid, of which he leads the Republican candidates.
Trump also faced legal woes over the claims, with Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis exploring if Trump’s comment to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” the votes he needed to win was an illegal action attempting to overturn the election. Trump continues to refer to the phone call as “perfect”.
Trump proved that he wasn’t likely to stop talking about election fraud anytime soon when he spoke with CNN host Kaitlan Collins in a live town hall event on May 10.
When pressed on the legitimacy of his beliefs by Collins, Trump pushed back and held steadfast that he believed election fraud was the reason he lost the 2020 election. A member of the crowd also questioned Trump on if he’ll stop saying “polarizing” comments about election fraud during his 2024 presidential bid.
Trump agreed to suspend the polarizing talk, unless he believed election fraud had occurred, which he has already hinted would be present in the 2024 election when he raged last Wednesday that the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Justice were conducting multiple investigations to attempt to conduct interference in the 2024 election.