NEW YORK: President Donald Trump has added The New York Times to the list of media companies he’s challenged in court, filing a $15 billion defamation lawsuit that targets four of its journalists in a book and three articles published within a two-month period before the last election.

In a Truth Social post announcing the lawsuit early Tuesday, Trump called the Times “one of the worst and most degenerate newspapers in the nation’s history” and a virtual mouthpiece for Democrats. The lawsuit was filed in US District Court in Florida.

The Times called the lawsuit meritless and an attempt to discourage independent reporting. “The New York Times will not be deterred by intimidation tactics,” spokesman Charlie Stadtlander said.