From Judge Steven Merryday (M.D. Fla.) today in Trump v. N.Y. Times Co. (for the Complaint in the underlying case, which involves various statements about Trump's early life and business career, see here):
A public figure, perhaps the world's most prominent public figure, whose actions and remarks routinely generate immediate global news coverage, sues a newspaper, perhaps the world's most prominent English-language newspaper, along with the world's largest trade book publisher and three authors. The plaintiff initiates in the Middle District of Florida an action for defamation arising from two articles and a book, researched, written, and edited in New York but published nationwide and abroad, including in the Middle District of Florida. The plaintiff, who resides in the Southern District of Florida but maintains a business presence in the Middle District of Florida, alleges that publication of the allegedly defamatory statements in the Middle District of Florida caused reputational and economic injury in the Middle District of Florida.
The court concluded that the case had been permissibly filed in the Middle District of Florida:
