A federal appeals court on Tuesday unanimously upheld the dismissal of Donald Trump’s 2022 defamation lawsuit against CNN, ruling that the network’s use of the phrase “the big lie” to describe Trump’s false claims about the 2020 election was protected opinion, not a provably false statement of fact.
The three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals—consisting of Trump appointees Kevin Newsom and Elizabeth Branch and Obama appointee Adalberto Jordan—affirmed a Florida district judge’s 2023 decision that Trump failed to prove “falsity,” an essential element of defamation.
The judges added that Trump’s remaining arguments were “likewise meritless.”
The original lawsuit challenged CNN’s on-air and online use of “the big lie”—a phrase historically tied to Nazi propaganda but recently applied by critics to Trump’s assertions that the election was stolen from him.
A CNN spokesperson declined to comment on the ruling.
The decision reinforces a pattern in which major news organizations that refuse to settle with Trump prevail in court against Trump’s defamation claims, in contrast to recent settlements by Disney (ABC News) and Paramount (CBS) that have faced significant public criticism over the past year.