Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa) speaks to supporters at a campaign rally in Bettendorf, Iowa, on May 26, 2026.
CNBC
A judge on Wednesday dismissed Donald Trump’s lawsuit accusing the Des Moines Register and its former pollster of misrepresenting the state of the 2024 presidential election, rejecting the president’s claims that the newspaper’s poll reporting violated the Iowa Consumer Fraud Act.
Iowa District Judge Scott J. Beatty sided with pollster J. Ann Selzer and the Register, who called the lawsuit a conspiracy theory and an affront to free speech protections.
The justices said Trump’s lawsuit aims to “stretch both Iowa’s statutory and common law laws beyond their current limits and turn speech that enjoys the highest category of First Amendment protection into liability.” After hearing arguments, the justices concluded that the constitutional protections were “too broad and far-reaching, and the case should be dismissed.”
Mr. Trump and his team have filed multiple lawsuits alleging media bias, questioning the limits of First Amendment protections for speech and reporting. Some of these lawsuits ended in settlements.
In December 2024, President Trump filed a lawsuit against Selzer, the Des Moines Register, and the paper’s parent company, alleging that they fraudulently published inaccurate poll results to harm Trump and aid Democrats, arguing that poll reporting is not protected speech.
Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks and former Iowa Sen. Brad Zorn, both Republicans, joined the lawsuit. Selzer and his co-defendants had hoped to move the case to federal court, but after a year of legal proceedings, the first hearing of the year was held in state court.
The poll, conducted by Selzer’s firm in late October and released days before Election Day in 2024, found Democratic presidential candidate and then-Vice President Kamala Harris winning 47% of likely Iowa voters, to Trump’s 44%.
Mr. Trump ultimately won the support of 56% of the nearly 2 million Iowans who voted.
Mr. Trump, Mr. Miller-Meeks and Mr. Zaun argued that the misleading reporting damaged their reputations and cost them valuable time, campaign funds and resources in the final days of the campaign.
Selzer’s case was taken up by the free speech advocacy group Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. In a separate filing, The Register, which is affiliated with the Iowa Pollster and its parent company, Gannett, argued that the court has never deemed a poll or a newspaper that covers it to be commercial speech, even though it may be sold for profit.
They argued that reporting on polls, whether right or wrong in understanding the current state of the race, is constitutionally protected political speech.
They also disputed claims of consumer fraud and stressed that the poll and its reporting had nothing to do with the companies’ dealings with Mr. Trump, Mr. Miller-Meeks and Mr. Zaun.
