Did Melania Trump win a $900 million defamation lawsuit against the TV show "The View"? No, that's not true: A spokesperson for "The View" told Lead Stories the story was false. The video in which it is claimed that Melania Trump won a lawsuit offers no proof of such a legal settlement or sources to back up the assertion. No credible news outlets report the first lady won almost a billion dollars in a defamation lawsuit against "The View."
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) published on YouTube on February 1, 2025, under the title "Melania Wins $900M 'Defamation Lawsuit' Against The View & Sunny Hostin #melaniatrump #sunnyhostin." It opened with a clip of Melania Trump on "Fox & Friends," with the host saying:
Melania Trump, great to see you.
Below is how the video looked on YouTube at the time of this publication:
(Source: YouTube screenshot taken Mon Feb 3 07:17:00 UTC 2025)
Click below to watch the video on YouTube:
At 1:15 in the video, an unidentified narrator says, "Melania Trump just made history with one of the biggest defamation lawsuit wins ever, securing a jaw-dropping 900-million-dollar settlement against 'The View' and and its co-host Sunny Hostin."
"This is not true," a spokesperson for "The View" told Lead Stories via email on February 3, 2025.
No proof or sources cited throughout the 13-minute video provided evidence that a jury awarded Melania Trump $900 million for a defamation lawsuit against "The View" and host Sunny Hostin in February 2025. Beginning at 11 seconds, there is a video clip of Melania Trump talking about a lawsuit, but this is from an interview with Anderson Cooper on CNN (archived here) from October 18, 2016.
At 7:08 in the video, a voice says, "When the verdict finally came down, it was clear that the jury wasn't buying The View's excuses, $900 million dollars in damages."
A search of the New York State Unified Court System, where "The View" is filmed, only returned the 2017 lawsuit Melania Trump filed against the Daily Mail, a British tabloid. There was nothing currently filed as of February 3, 2025, as this screenshot shows:
(Source: New York County court website screenshot taken on Mon Feb 3 19:12:16 2024 UTC)
Lead Stories searched the Palm Beach County, Florida, court records and did not find a lawsuit filed by Melania Trump against "The View," ABC or Sunny Hostin, as this screenshot shows:
(Source: Palm Beach County website screenshot taken on Mon Feb 3 19:42:32 2024 UTC)
An extensive search for reports of the first lady suing "The View" and Sunny Hostin for $900 million and winning that amount did not reveal any news stories. A Google search (archived here) for keywords found no news reports that Melania Trump won a $900 million defamation lawsuit against "The View" or Hostin.
Lead Stories reached out to Melania Trump's office and will update this fact check if a response is received.
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Other Lead Stories fact checks of claims about Melania Trump can be found here and of claims about Donald Trump can be found here.
