President Donald Trump gleefully announced on Tuesday that Paramount had paid its $16 million settlement—while confirming that he expected millions more in a side deal.
“BREAKING NEWS! We have just achieved a BIG AND IMPORTANT WIN in our Historic Lawsuit against 60 Minutes, CBS, and Paramount,” he wrote in a Truth Social post. “Paramount/CBS/60 Minutes have today paid $16 Million Dollars in settlement, and we also anticipate receiving $20 Million Dollars more from the new Owners, in Advertising, PSAs, or similar Programming, for a total of over $36 Million Dollars.”
The payment announcement comes three weeks after Paramount announced in a late-night statement it had settled Trump’s $20 billion lawsuit over a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris, which he claimed had been deceptively edited.
Paramount has been actively working toward federal approval of its merger with David Ellison’s Skydance, but it and Trump claimed the settlement had nothing to do with its merger.
Trump, however, has also repeatedly hinted at a side deal with Skydance after a New York Post report indicated the company would allocate between $15 million and $20 million for such ads once it acquires Paramount.
“We did a deal for about $16 million plus $16 million—or maybe more than that in advertising," he told reporters earlier this month. “So it’s a combination of 16 plus 16 ... So it’s like $32 to maybe $35 million. I think that’s what they did.”
Paramount did not respond to an immediate request for comment, but it previously said it had “no knowledge of any promises or commitments made to President Trump other than those set forth in the settlement proposed by the mediator and accepted by the parties.”
Skydance did not respond to an immediate request for comment.
Three Democratic senators—Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and Ron Wyden—sent a letter to Ellison on Monday asking if Skydance had struck a separate deal.
It also comes as Trump has tried to flex his strong-arming tactics against media outlets, celebrating on Friday that CBS canceled Stephen Colbert’s The Late Show as speculation mounted over whether the network axed the show—and its Trump-hating comedian—to appease the temperamental president.
CBS denied any connection to Trump or the Skydance deal when it announced last week that Colbert’s show would end after the 2025-2026 season, claiming it was a “purely financial decision.” The statement came three days after Colbert accused Paramount of paying a “big fat bribe” to Trump with the settlement.
“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,” Trump wrote on Tuesday. “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.”
Trump also sued the Journal on Friday after it reported on a “bawdy” letter Trump wrote for the late child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein for Epstein’s 50th birthday in 2003. He claimed the letter was fake and demanded the paper—and its billionaire owner, Rupert Murdoch—pay him $10 billion in damages.
