So Donald Trump's war against a free press has reached a new level.

Over the weekend, we learned that ABC News had settled a defamation lawsuit with Trump for $15 million.

The lawsuit alleged that ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos had defamed Trump when he misspoke several times during an interview

and said that a jury had found Trump liable for rape

when it actually found him liable for sexual abuse.

It's worth noting here that the judge in that very case

clarified that the jury's verdict did not mean

that Trump's accuser failed to prove that Mr. Trump raped her,

as many people commonly understand the word rape. But it's hard to imagine that Mr. Trump raped her, as many people commonly understand the word rape.

But it's hard to imagine that Donald Trump brought that lawsuit

because he really cared about the legal distinctions here.

Trump likely brought that lawsuit

as part of a campaign to silence his critics

and to keep controversy at bay.

And that campaign is ratcheting up. At a press conference yesterday,

Trump celebrated the ABC settlement and indicated that he wanted to bring lawsuits against

even more media outlets. I'm going to be bringing one against the people in Iowa, their newspaper, which had a very, very good

pollster who got me right all the time.

And then just before the election, she said I was going to lose by three or four points,

and it became the biggest story all over the world because I was going to win Iowa by

20 points.

That was the Des Moines Register, and it was their parent.

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