On Wednesday, an Iowa judge dismissed a lawsuit in which President Donald Trump preposterously claimed that The Des Moines Register committed consumer fraud when it published poll results he did not like prior to the 2024 election. Those surprising results, which gave Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, a lead in Iowa, turned out to be far off the mark. But according to Trump, that forecast was not only embarrassing but also illegal.
Trump's lawsuit, which he first filed in December 2024, alleged that the poll violated the Iowa Consumer Fraud Act, justifying damages to compensate him for "the extensive time and resources" required to "mitigate and counteract the harms" caused by the Register's reporting. That argument, if accepted, would expose journalists to the chilling threat of civil liability whenever someone claims they got a story wrong.
