An Iowa judge threw out Donald Trump’s lawsuit against Gannett and pollster J. Ann Selzer. But after nearly two years of litigation, the case raises a larger question about what it means to “win.”
President Donald Trump lost his lawsuit against Gannett (owner of the Des Moines Register) and longtime Iowa pollster J. Ann Selzer. But that doesn’t necessarily mean the lawsuit failed.
Polk County District Court Judge Scott Beattie dismissed the case with prejudice, rejecting Trump’s argument that the Register and Selzer committed consumer fraud by publishing the final 2024 Iowa Poll, which showed Kamala Harris leading Trump by three points. Trump ultimately won Iowa by 13 points.
Beattie found something much more fundamental than a bad poll. The poll and the reporting about it were protected political speech.
“At its core,” Beattie wrote, the lawsuit attempted to stretch Iowa law far enough to turn speech receiving the highest level of First Amendment protection into legal liability.
The judge wouldn’t allow it.
A predictable ending, nearly two years later
Trump filed the lawsuit in December 2024. What followed was an extended fight over state versus federal court, amended complaints, motions and appeals before the underlying claims finally reached this dismissal.
That process matters. For nearly two years, Selzer, the Register and its parent company had to defend themselves against accusations of fraud and “election interference” arising from a political poll.
And Beattie recognized the danger of allowing such cases to continue.
Unlike an ordinary lawsuit, he wrote, this one concerned speech on matters of public interest. Forcing people to defend legally faulty claims involving that speech carries an additional cost because it can discourage others from reporting and debating public affairs.
In other words, the harm can occur before the lawsuit is decided.
Winning without winning?
We cannot know what Trump privately expected from the Iowa lawsuit. But we do know that Trump has previously described unsuccessful litigation in terms that had little to do with winning in court.
Trump once sued journalist Timothy O’Brien after O’Brien challenged Trump’s claims about his wealth. The lawsuit was dismissed. Trump later acknowledged that he knew he couldn’t win. He described the result differently: he had spent relatively little on lawyers while forcing the other side to spend much more.
“I did it to make his life miserable,” Trump said.
Years later, Trump described that same unsuccessful litigation as accomplishing what he wanted by costing O’Brien substantial legal fees.
That history doesn’t prove Trump filed the Iowa lawsuit for the same reason.
But it does demonstrate something important about how Trump himself has viewed litigation. Winning a court judgment isn’t necessarily the only measure of success.
A lawsuit can consume time and money. It can damage reputations and keep accusations alive. And when the target is a journalist, newspaper or pollster, it can send a message to others who might publish something a powerful political figure doesn’t like.
The question after the verdict
Beattie’s ruling is a significant victory for the First Amendment. But it also leaves an uncomfortable question.
If a lawsuit ultimately determined to be legally defective can continue for nearly two years before being dismissed, how much punishment can litigation impose before anyone reaches the merits?
Trump lost this case. The harder question is how much a lawsuit can accomplish before a judge finally says there was never a viable case to begin with.
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