Donald Trump didn’t hold back when talking about his $16 million settlement from CBS — and he did it on the very program he sued.
The 45th and now 47th president of the United States sat down with journalist Norah O’Donnell for 60 Minutes on Sunday, just months after settling a lawsuit with the show’s parent company, Paramount Global. Trump had sued over what he claimed was deceptive editing during his 2024 interview with Kamala Harris, arguing it unfairly boosted her campaign against him.
In a portion of the new interview that never made it to air, Trump couldn’t resist bringing up the case. “Actually, 60 Minutes paid me a lotta money. And you don’t have to put this on, because I don’t wanna embarrass you,” he told O’Donnell.
The conversation later shifted to other hot topics, including the administration’s escalating tensions with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and criticism over the Department of Homeland Security’s controversial immigration raids. But Trump’s grin over his legal win with CBS was hard to miss.
“I’m sure you’re not — you have a great — I think you have a great, new leader, frankly,” he said, referring to Bari Weiss, the former New York Times columnist recently appointed as head of CBS News. “The young woman that’s leading your whole enterprise is a great from what I know.”
Weiss took over CBS News after a major shake-up in August, when Paramount Global completed a merger with Skydance Media, the company owned by David Ellison, son of billionaire Oracle founder and longtime Trump supporter Larry Ellison. The merger, heavily scrutinised by Congress, came just weeks after Paramount quietly settled Trump’s lawsuit for $16 million.
Trump claimed victory in his 60 Minutes chat, saying, “60 Minutes was forced to pay me a lot of money because they took [Harris’] answer out that was so bad it was election-changing, two nights before the election, and they put a new answer in. And they paid me a lot of money for that.”
He also praised the Ellisons’ takeover of Paramount, calling it “the greatest thing that’s happened in a long time to a free and open and good press.”
The network’s internal reshuffle didn’t stop there. A month before the merger, CBS abruptly cancelled The Late Show franchise after 33 years on air, a move that stunned viewers and critics alike. At the time, CBS called it “a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night.” But detractors accused the network of trying to stay in Trump’s good graces and avoid any interference from his Federal Communications Commission.
Even David Letterman, who hosted The Late Show before Stephen Colbert, weighed in. He didn’t hold back, calling the Ellisons “bottom feeders” and their decision “gutless.”
While CBS insists its decisions were purely financial, Trump’s victory lap on 60 Minutes made one thing clear — he’s more than happy to remind his critics, especially in the media, who got the last laugh.
