The Daily Fuckup

Donald Trump is asking the Supreme Court for more time to decide whether to seek review of his lost defamation case against CNN.

In an application filed July 1, 2026, Trump asked Justice Clarence Thomas, who handles emergency matters from the Eleventh Circuit, to extend the deadline for filing a petition for certiorari by 30 days. The filing says the current deadline is July 15, 2026, and that the requested extension would move it to Aug. 14, 2026. The request was made under Supreme Court Rule 13.5 and cites counsel’s scheduling demands and the need to confer further with Trump over the issues that would go into any petition.

The lower-court case is already over. The Eleventh Circuit affirmed dismissal of Trump’s suit on Nov. 18, 2025, and later denied rehearing en banc on Mar. 17, 2026. Trump’s new filing does not reopen the merits. It only asks for more time to file the paper that would ask the justices to take the case.

Trump’s underlying claim centered on CNN’s use of the phrase “Big Lie” in coverage of his election-fraud claims. The Eleventh Circuit said the complaint did not adequately plead falsity and upheld dismissal. In the extension filing, Trump says he intends to seek Supreme Court review of the appellate court’s ruling.

The request is a routine Supreme Court procedural move, not a signal about how the justices might view the case. For now, it simply preserves Trump’s option to ask for review while leaving the Eleventh Circuit’s dismissal in place.