Trump's lawsuit against a book publisher is a dangerous escalation

THE ASSAULT ON free speech in the United States entered an alarming new phase last week and not only in the Trump administration's crackdown on comments regarding the killing of Charlie Kirk.

- SUMMER LOPEZ GUEST CONTRIBUTOR

JUSTIN SULLIVAN Getty Images PENGUIN published "Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father's Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success."

Something else happened: President Trump filed suit, as an individual, against the New York Times, four journalists who work there and the world's largest publishing house. Angered by a handful of articles and a book - "Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father's Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success," written by two of the four journalists-Trump is seeking an astronomical $15 billion in damages. (A judge has already dismissed the case, as of Friday, but told the president he can refile.)

Trump is no stranger to filing defamation suits, or threatening them, and in this suit it's clear that the primary focus of his ire was the New York Times which he has sued before. (He lost that case and was forced to pay the newspaper's legal costs.) But there's a risk in this moment that we miss the significance of a sitting president suing Penguin Random House, the world's largest trade book publisher, and two authors for publishing a book.