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Trump sues Des Moines Register and top pollster, vows to pursue more defamation claims

Iowa pollster and newspaper become Trump’s latest press targets after already suing ABC News, which settled, and CBS News

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US President-elect Donald Trump. Photo: Reuters

US President-elect Donald Trump has filed a lawsuit against the Des Moines Register newspaper and its former top pollster, the day after he stepped up his legal threats against news outlets and said he would also consider suing social media influencers for defamation.

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The lawsuit filed Monday night in Iowa’s Polk County seeks “accountability for brazen election interference committed by” the newspaper and pollster J. Ann Selzer over its poll published on November 2.

That poll showed Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris leading Trump by three percentage points in Iowa. “Selzer’s polling ‘miss’ was not an astonishing coincidence - it was intentional,” the lawsuit said. “As President Trump observed: ‘She knew exactly what she was doing’.”

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages and an order barring the Des Moines Register from engaging in “ongoing deceptive and misleading acts and practices” related to polling.

Then-President Donald Trump and ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos in 2020. File photo: AFP
Then-President Donald Trump and ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos in 2020. File photo: AFP

A Des Moines Register representative said the organisation stands by its reporting and believes the lawsuit is without merit.

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