Donald Trump sues CNN for $475m over ‘comparisons to Hitler’

Donald Trump launched a lawsuit against CNN on Monday, seeking $475 million (£420m) in damages over claims the cable TV network defamed him with comparisons to Adolf Hitler and Chairman Mao.

The former US president claims in his lawsuit, filed in US District Court in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, that CNN had used its considerable influence as a leading news organisation to defeat him politically, in a sustained "campaign of libel and slander".

CNN declined to comment on the case.

Mr Trump, a Republican, claims in the 29-page lawsuit that CNN had a long track record of criticising him but had ramped up its attacks in recent months because the network feared that he would run again for president in 2024.

"As a part of its concerted effort to tilt the political balance to the left, CNN has tried to taint the Plaintiff with a series of ever-more scandalous, false, and defamatory labels of 'racist,' 'Russian lackey,' 'insurrectionist,' and ultimately 'Hitler,'" the lawsuit claims.

The lawsuit lists several instances in which CNN appeared to compare the 76-year-old to the Hitler, including a January 2022 special report by host Fareed Zakaria that included footage of the German dictator.

The suit also cites CNN broadcast on its Reliable Sources program hosted by then-anchor Brian Stelter, an interview with psychiatrist, Allen Frances. In the broadcast, Mr Frances claimed that “Trump is as destructive a person in this century as Hitler, Stalin, and Mao were in the last century”.

Mr Trump, who in 2020 lost a re-election bid to Democrat Joe Biden, has not said whether he would seek re-election.

In order to prove defamation, public officials and other public figures must prove journalists acted with actual malice or reckless disregard for the truth in their reporting, a high legal bar to clear given First Amendment protections granted to the free press under the Constitution.

The New York Times, for example, has not lost a defamation case in more than 50 years.

A highly litigious Mr Trump has lodged a number of lawsuits since leaving office in January 2021.

In one, he accused his 2016 election rival Hillary Clinton and dozens of others of conspiring against him with allegedly fake Russia claims, which was tossed out by a federal judge in Florida last month.

The latest comes as the former president faces considerable legal woes, including a criminal investigation by the US Justice Department for retaining government records at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida after leaving office in January 2021.

Mr Trump was sued last month by New York state Attorney General Leticia James, who has accused him of lying to banks and insurers over the value of his assets.

And a congressional committee is investigating the Jan 6, 2021, assault on the US Capitol by Trump supporters, focusing on the former president's role in the attack.