“Alleging only two simple counts of defamation, the complaint consumes 85 pages,” Merryday wrote.

“Even under the most generous and lenient application of rule 8, the complaint is decidedly improper and impermissible.”

He criticized the original filing for “many, often repetitive, and laudatory (toward President Trump) but superfluous allegations,” adding that “a complaint remains an improper and impermissible place for the tedious and burdensome aggregation of prospective evidence.”

The new complaint trims the excess but keeps the scope. Trump again seeks $15 billion in compensatory damages plus punitive damages, according to the filing.

The case stems from a series of Times reports published in 2024, along with the “Lucky Loser” book, which examined Trump’s finances and his family’s real estate empire.

The reporting detailed alleged tax avoidance schemes by Trump’s father, Fred C. Trump, and described the president’s rise through the television show “The Apprentice.”

Trump’s lawyers argue those accounts falsely portrayed him as a creation of Hollywood producers rather than a self-made businessman.

The new filing lists dozens of allegedly defamatory statements and descriptions pulled from the Times’ coverage and the book.

The amended version still names Craig, Buettner and Times White House correspondent Peter Baker as defendants, but drops reporter Michael S. Schmidt, who had been included in the first filing.

Trump first announced the lawsuit on Truth Social on Sept. 15, calling the Times “one of the worst and most degenerate newspapers in the nation’s history.”

“The New York Times has been allowed to freely lie, smear, and defame me for far too long, and that stops, NOW!” he wrote.

The original complaint accuses the Times and its reporters of running a “fact-free narrative” about his career, alleging “reputational injury” worth billions of dollars.

“As we said when this was first filed and again after the judge’s ruling to strike it: this lawsuit has no merit,” the Times said in a statment on Thursday.