President Trump said mainstream media is “on notice” after he received the $16 million from the settlement reached with Paramount Global over the “60 Minutes” interview with Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris.
“BREAKING NEWS! We have just achieved a BIG AND IMPORTANT WIN in our Historic Lawsuit against 60 Minutes, CBS, and Paramount. Just like ABC and George Slopadopoulos, CBS and its Corporate Owners knew that they defrauded the American People, and were desperate to settle,” Mr. Trump wrote Tuesday on Truth Social.
He also anticipates receiving $20 million “more from the new Owners, in Advertising, PSAs, or similar Programming,” referring to a planned merger between Paramount and SkyDance.
“This is another in a long line of VICTORIES over the Fake News Media, who we are holding to account for their widespread fraud and deceit,” he said. “The Wall Street Journal, The Failing New York Times, The Washington Post, MSDNC, CNN, and all other Mainstream Media Liars, are ON NOTICE that the days of them being allowed to deceive the American People are OVER.”
The company announced the settlement earlier this month. The money will go to Mr. Trump’s future presidential library and to pay his legal fees. And, in the future, “60 Minutes” has to promptly release full transcripts of the interviews it conducts with presidential candidates.
Mr. Trump sued the CBS News parent company for $20 billion over the October 2024 interview with Ms. Harris, his then-election rival.
During the interview, Ms. Harris was asked a question by host Bill Whitaker about the Israel-Hamas war, but clips aired on “60 Minutes” and “Face the Nation” showed her giving different answers.
Both answers were part of one big response that Ms. Harris gave. The outlet posted the transcript on its website earlier this year and said that the uncut transcript shows that the interview was “not doctored or deceitful.”
The lawsuit alleged that CBS edited the interview and tried to “tip the scales in favor of the Democratic Party” with its “partisan and unlawful acts of election and voter interference through malicious, deceptive, and substantial news distortion calculated to confuse, deceive, and mislead the public.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Massachusetts Democrat, questioned whether the settlement was “bribery in plain sight.”
She said the company’s settlement “exposes a glaring need for rules to restrict donations to sitting presidents’ libraries,” and she vowed to introduce legislation to “rein in” corruption through donations to presidential libraries.
Others questioned whether the settlement was connected to CBS canceling “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” though CBS said it was strictly a financial decision.
On his show, Mr. Colbert has often criticized the president and said he was “offended” by the settlement.
“I don’t know if anything — anything — will repair my trust in this company,” he said on the show last week. “But, just taking a stab at it, I’d say $16 million would help.”
Mr. Trump also celebrated the cancellation.
“I absolutely love that Colbert got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings,” the president wrote Friday on Truth Social. “I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next. Has even less talent than Colbert! Greg Gutfeld is better than all of them combined, including the Moron on NBC who ruined the once great Tonight Show.”
In response, Mr. Colbert said during his opening monologue Monday, “How dare you, sir? Would an untalented man be able to compose the following satirical witticism? ‘Go f—- yourself.’”
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.