US President Donald Trump says he will file a $US15 billion ($22.5 billion) lawsuit for defamation and libel against the New York Times.

It comes days after the newspaper released articles on his ties to disgraced late financier Jeffrey Epstein.

The lawsuit filed in US District Court in Florida names several articles and one book written by two of the newspaper’s journalists and published ahead of last year’s presidential election. It says all are “part of a decades-long pattern by The New York Times of intentional and malicious defamation against President Trump”.

“Defendants published such statements negligently, with knowledge of the falsity of the statements, and/or with reckless disregard of their truth or falsity,” the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit comes after Trump threatened last week to sue the Times for its reporting related to a sexually suggestive note and drawing given to Epstein.

“Today, I have the Great Honor of bringing a $15 Billion Dollar Defamation and Libel Lawsuit against The New York Times,” Trump said in a post on his social media platform Truth Social on Tuesday (AEST).

“The ‘Times’ has engaged in a decades long method of lying about your Favorite President (ME!), my family, business, the America First Movement, MAGA, and our Nation as a whole.

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

The New York Times did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump has previously gone after other media outlets, including filing a $US10 billion defamation lawsuit against the The Wall Street Journal and media mogul Rupert Murdoch in July after the newspaper published a story reporting on his ties to Epstein.