California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced on Friday that he has filed a $787 million lawsuit against Fox News, accusing the right-wing propaganda outlet of defamation.
“Until Fox is willing to be truthful, I will keep fighting against their propaganda machine,” Newsom said in a statement to Politico.
Newsom’s suit alleges that Fox deceptively edited video in a report on his discussions with President Donald Trump’s discussions about protests against ICE in Los Angeles. It also notes that he spoke to Trump on June 7, though Trump incorrectly said on June 10 that he spoke with Newsom “a day ago.”
Newsom said at the time that was untrue, but Fox still aired edited video of Trump’s comments. Alongside the edited footage, host Jesse Watters asked, “Why would Newsom lie and claim Trump never called him?”
“It is perhaps unsurprising that a near-octogenarian with a history of delusionary public statements and unhinged late-night social media screeds might confuse the dates,” Newsom’s lawyers wrote. “But Fox’s decision to cover up for President Trump’s error cannot be so easily dismissed.”
Media Matters for America documented the process by which multiple Fox hosts, anchors, and reporters lied to viewers about the timeline of Newsom and Trump’s communications, which Trump then cited in further attacks against Newsom.
The monetary value of Newsom’s lawsuit is identical to the payout Fox gave to Dominion Voting Systems in a 2023 settlement after the voting services company sued the network for lying about its role in the 2020 election.
As in Newsom’s case, multiple Fox hosts and pundits lied about Dominion and alleged that the company helped President Joe Biden steal the election. Trump has spent years coping with his loss to Biden by more than 7 million votes by pushing the lie that the election was rigged—and Fox was a key part of that propaganda campaign.
Newsom has become one of the most high-profile figures within the Democratic Party for opposing Trump and defending Californians against Trump’s heavy-handed immigration enforcement.
“Trump doesn’t even know what day it is,” Newsom said at one point as Trump tried to assert his dominance over California.
Newsom even delivered an address to the nation on June 10, asserting that “democracy is under assault before our eyes.”
Newsom’s suit shines a new spotlight on the unique role Fox plays in amplifying pro-Trump propaganda—even at the expense of facts and reality.
It also reminds millions that Fox is capable of wielding enormous influence over how Trump sees the world, which often leads him to decisions that put millions in the United States and around the world in danger.