Suit stemmed from 2023 Post article that said bank with ties to the porn industry helped fund Trump’s media operation

A federal judge in Florida has thrown out Donald Trump’s $3.8bn defamation lawsuit against the Washington Post over an article that said a bank with links to the pornography industry helped fund his fledgling social media operation.

In a brief order granting summary judgment to the newspaper, Tampa district court judge Thomas Patrick Barber, a Trump appointee, said the Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG) had “failed to present evidence that would allow a jury to find by clear and convincing evidence” that the Post acted with actual malice, the benchmark for such an action to succeed.