President-elect Donald Trump has intensified his legal battle against the media by filing a lawsuit against renowned pollster J. Ann Selzer, her polling company Selzer & Co., The Des Moines Register, and its parent company, Gannett.
Unlike many of Trump’s previous lawsuits against the media, which are typically centered on defamation, this case accuses the defendants of violating the Iowa Consumer Fraud Act, which prohibits deceptive practices in the promotion or sale of goods and services.
Although legal experts believe these unconventional claims are unlikely to hold up in court, Trump appears to be leveraging the lawsuit to criticize what he views as left-leaning media, biased election coverage, and the influence of pollsters during campaigns. Despite winning the 2024 election, Trump argues that Selzer’s poll—released just days before the election—was designed to unfairly benefit Democrats. The poll showed Vice President Kamala Harris leading Trump in Iowa, a result that ultimately did not reflect the actual voting outcome.
This lawsuit follows Trump’s recent $16 million settlement with ABC News in a defamation case, further emboldening him and his allies to target major media outlets. Trump continues to pursue legal action against news organizations and a book publisher, while publicly threatening further lawsuits.
The lawsuit stems from the final Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll of the 2024 election cycle, conducted by Selzer & Co. in late October. Based on telephone interviews with 808 likely Iowa voters, the poll reported that Kamala Harris had 47% support compared to Trump’s 44%, a surprising result given Trump’s strong position in the state. In reality, Trump won Iowa decisively by a 13-point margin.
Trump’s legal team claims the poll amounted to “election interference,” alleging that it was part of a broader effort to create an illusion of Harris’s inevitability in the final days of the campaign. Trump’s attorneys wrote, “Defendants and their cohorts in the Democrat Party hoped that the Harris Poll would create a false narrative of inevitability for Harris in the final week of the 2024 Presidential Election.
Instead, the November 5 Election was a monumental victory for President Trump in both the Electoral College and the Popular Vote, an overwhelming mandate for his America First principles, and the consignment of the radical socialist agenda to the dustbin of history.”
However, the lawsuit does not present any evidence that Selzer or her firm acted improperly in reporting the poll’s findings.
Election law expert Rick Hasen, a professor at UCLA School of Law, dismissed the case’s viability, stating, “I don’t expect this lawsuit to go anywhere,” in response to the news.
