The settlement resolves Trump’s claim that CBS deceptively edited its “60 Minutes” interview with Harris — then a presidential candidate — to favour Democrats in the 2024 election
NEW YORK CITY, New York: Paramount has agreed to pay US$16 million to settle a lawsuit brought by U.S. President Donald Trump over CBS’s broadcast of an edited interview with Kamala Harris, marking one of the largest media settlements involving a sitting president.
The deal, announced late on July 1, follows months of legal wrangling and arrives as Paramount seeks regulatory approval for its $8.4 billion merger with Skydance Media.
The settlement resolves Trump’s claim that CBS deceptively edited its “60 Minutes” interview with Harris — then a presidential candidate — to favour Democrats in the 2024 election. Trump filed the original $10-billion lawsuit in October and raised the damages sought to $20 billion in an amended complaint filed in February.
Paramount said the $16 million would go toward Trump’s future presidential library. “The settlement does not include a statement of apology or regret,” the company noted.
Shares of Paramount dropped 1.2% on Wednesday following the news.
The Federal Communications Commission, which must approve the Skydance merger, responded critically. FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez called the settlement a “desperate” move that casts “a long shadow over the integrity of the transaction” and sets a “dangerous precedent for the First Amendment.”
CBS had aired two versions of the Harris interview, which appeared to show her giving conflicting answers about the Israel-Hamas conflict. The network said the edits were routine for televised interviews and maintained the suit was “completely without merit,” requesting its dismissal.
On the campaign trail and as president, Trump has threatened to revoke CBS’s broadcast licenses, though the FCC grants licenses to individual stations, not networks.
The case entered mediation in April and comes amid growing scrutiny over media-industry concessions to Trump. Senator Ron Wyden called the settlement “a bribe for merger approval,” while Senator Bernie Sanders warned it would embolden Trump’s attacks on the press. Senator Elizabeth Warren announced plans to propose limits on donations to sitting presidents’ libraries. Senator Ed Markey said the settlement “reeks of political interference.”
Trump’s legal team welcomed the outcome. “With this record settlement, President Donald J. Trump delivers another win for the American people,” a spokesperson said.
Paramount also agreed that transcripts of future “60 Minutes” interviews with U.S. presidential candidates would be released after airing, with redactions as needed for legal or national security reasons.
A spokesperson for Paramount Chair Shari Redstone was unavailable for comment. At the annual shareholder meeting, Co-CEO George Cheeks explained the decision: settling would avoid “unpredictable” legal costs and the risk of “significant financial as well as reputational damage.”
Trump argued CBS’s editing violated Texas’s Deceptive Trade Practices-Consumer Protection Act, a novel legal route to target press coverage without needing to prove actual malice.
The move adds to a growing list of media settlements with Trump. In December, ABC News agreed to pay $15 million to his presidential library and issued an apology for an inaccurate on-air comment. In January, Meta Platforms, parent of Facebook and Instagram, settled a suit over Trump’s account suspensions by paying around $25 million.
Trump has vowed to continue pursuing lawsuits against media outlets. In one ongoing case, he refiled a lawsuit against the Des Moines Register in Iowa state court after dropping a federal version. The suit alleges misleading polling data and seeks to bar the paper from publishing “deceptive” election-related polls. The Register has stood by its reporting and said the suit is without merit.
