Former US President Donald Trump has sued CNN, accusing the channel of defaming him over fears he may run for president again in 2024, and seeking $475 million in damages, La Libre Belgique newspaper reported, citing Radar.

The Republican, who has increasingly openly toyed with the idea of ​​running for the White House, believes that CNN “sought to use his enormous influence” to “embarrass him in front of viewers and readers in order to defeat him politically.” “, according to the text of the complaint filed on Monday in Florida.

“CNN’s campaign of defamation and slander against the plaintiff has intensified in recent months as CNN fears that the plaintiff will run for president in 2024,” the same source said.

Donald Trump accuses the channel of wanting to “tilt the political balance to the left”, trying to “contaminate” it with “a series of increasingly defamatory, false and scandalous adjectives such as ‘racist’, ‘Russian scumbag’, ‘insurgent’ and finally ‘Hitler'” .

In particular, the businessman criticizes CNN for using the phrase “Big Lie” to talk about his claims that the 2020 presidential election was “stolen” from him by Joe Biden.

“The Big Lie is a direct reference to tactics used by Adolf Hitler that appear in Mein Kampf,” the complaint states. “The Big Lie was used by Hitler to incite hatred against Jews” and should not be “taken lightly,” Trump’s representatives said in the complaint.

“The channel’s repeated use of the phrase about Mr. Trump — more than 7,700 times since January 2021,” the complaint alleges — is “a deliberate attempt by CNN to convey to its audience an association between the plaintiff and one of its most repugnant personalities.” in recent history”.

76-year-old Donald Trump is demanding $475 million in damages. In a press release, the former president said late Monday that he plans to file lawsuits against “a large number” of other media outlets in the coming weeks and months, also for defamation.

He also said he may take action against a parliamentary committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by his supporters.

During his time in office, the former Republican president had an extremely bad relationship with media outlets such as CNN and The New York Times, which he called “fake news” media. He regularly spoke out against them on Twitter, where he was banned.