Breaking News: CBS NEWS Parent Paramount Settles Trump Lawsuit For $16 Million

With five days until merger deadline, media giant pays Trump to clear regulatory obstacles

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Paramount will pay Donald Trump $16 million to settle his lawsuit over 60 Minutes' editing of a Kamala Harris interview, eliminating the final legal obstacle to its $8 billion merger with Skydance Media just five days before the July 7th deadline.

The payment, flowing directly to Trump's future presidential library, resolves a lawsuit that legal experts universally considered meritless. Trump had sued for $20 billion, claiming CBS deceptively edited Harris's response about Israel to make her "appear more presidential." The settlement requires no apology from CBS and removes regulatory pressure that threatened to derail Paramount's merger approval.

How CBS News Capitulated To Trump

This settlement became possible only after two principled executives refused to participate and were removed from their positions.

Bill Owens, 60 Minutes' executive producer for 37 years, resigned in April when he could no longer "make independent decisions based on what was right for 60 Minutes." His departure came as Paramount installed unprecedented editorial oversight, appointing Susan Zirinsky to supervise content decisions that had been autonomous for six decades.

Wendy McMahon, CBS News President and CEO, followed in May, stating "the company and I do not agree on the path forward." Both executives had adamantly opposed any settlement with Trump, viewing it as surrendering journalistic independence to corporate financial interests.

Their resignations weren't coincidental departures—they were necessary removals of obstacles to a settlement that controlling shareholder Shari Redstone favored to facilitate the merger. CBS correspondent Scott Pelley told viewers that "Paramount began to supervise our content in new ways" as merger pressures mounted, while Lesley Stahl privately told colleagues that 60 Minutes was "fighting for our life."

Paid subscribers can get a deeper dive into how the White House coordinated its lawsuit to extract the multi-million-dollar payout, just days before the merger deadline.