Trump stalls on promise to open up libel laws

President Donald Trump promised to take his issues with mainstream media coverage of him to another level during the campaign.

Trump said multiple times that he would be in favor of changing the libel laws. Trump called out major news outlets at a Feb. 26, 2016, rally in Fort Worth, Texas, saying as president, he would "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."

Trump brought it up again once in office. He went after the "failing" New York Times after the newspaper reported on intercepted communications between Russian officials and associates of Trump's campaign.

"The failing @nytimes has disgraced the media world. Gotten me wrong for two solid years. Change libel laws?" he tweeted March 30.

We haven't seen Trump propose any specific action at this point.

It would take quite a lot to change the country's rules on libel.

The 1964 U.S. Supreme Court case New York Times Co. vs. Sullivan required public figures who are suing news organizations for libel to prove that false information was published knowingly and with malicious intent.

There isn't one single law that could be changed, other than the First Amendment and the protections it gives. Libel laws vary state by state, and there isn't a federal libel law.

In order for Trump to change the libel law, he would need to overturn the Supreme Court case. As we have previously mentioned, Trump also could lead an effort to amend the Constitution, but that doesn't seem likely either.  

We rate this promise Stalled.