Trump Takes Legal Action Against Iowa Polls
Des Moines, Iowa – In a surprising twist of events, the president-elect has thrown down the gauntlet, filing a lawsuit that accuses a local newspaper and a polling firm of committing what he terms “brazen election interference.” This legal action comes just days after reaching a defamation settlement with a major news network, making it clear that he intends to keep a close eye on media coverage as he prepares to take office.
Polls Under Scrutiny
The lawsuit was filed late on Monday in Polk County, naming The Des Moines Register and its parent company, Gannett, along with the well-known pollster Ann Selzer. The lawsuit claims that a pre-election survey published on November 2 intentionally aimed to downplay Trump’s popularity.
This particular poll showed Trump trailing behind Democratic candidate Kamala Harris by three percentage points in Iowa—a state he famously won in both the 2016 and 2020 elections. Trump secured Iowa by a whopping 13 percentage points in the recent election, making the poll’s findings seem particularly eyebrow-raising.
Allegations of Intent
Within the lawsuit’s details, Trump’s legal team accuses Selzer of crafting a flawed poll intentionally. The filing states, “Selzer’s polling ‘miss’ was not an astonishing coincidence – it was intentional,” echoing Trump’s own assertion that “She knew exactly what she was doing.”
The lawsuit leans heavily on alleged violations of Iowa’s consumer fraud law and seeks to recover triple damages as determined by a jury if the case goes through.
Newspaper Responds
In response, a spokeswoman for The Des Moines Register stood firm, asserting that the paper is confident in its reporting and considers the lawsuit to be without merit. “We have acknowledged that the Selzer/Des Moines Register pre-election poll did not reflect the ultimate margin of President Trump’s Election Day victory in Iowa by releasing the poll’s full demographics, cross-tabs, weighted and unweighted data, as well as a technical explanation from pollster Ann Selzer,” she said.
Selzer herself has not commented directly on the lawsuit but recently expressed her confusion over the notion that she had designed the poll to yield a predetermined outcome.
Legal Battles Ahead
This lawsuit comes on the heels of a recent settlement regarding a defamation case against a news anchor who incorrectly stated that Trump had been found civilly liable for rape. Legal experts suggest that navigating this new lawsuit could prove quite tricky for Trump due to the strong protections afforded to free speech in the United States.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, an organization dedicated to civil liberties, has voiced concerns about the implications of the lawsuit. They describe it as a “direct assault” on the First Amendment, emphasizing that holding news entities accountable for publishing information that politicians dislike could threaten the free press entirely.
The group noted, “Getting a poll wrong is not election interference or fraud.”
The Bigger Picture
Trump’s ongoing legal pursuits don’t end here. He is also suing another news outlet over claims of deceptive editing in an interview with Harris. As these lawsuits unfold, they could create a ripple effect in the media landscape, exposing internal communications that could be less than flattering for journalists and executives alike.
As this saga develops, it’s clear that the relationship between Trump and the media remains complicated, and this upcoming presidency promises to be anything but boring.
