Donald Trump forces CBS to settle for $16 million over a deceptive 60 Minutes interview, shaking the media industry and triggering major resignations.
CBS thought they could play games with the truth and get away with it.
They were wrong.
And Donald Trump just crushed CBS with one brutal move that left the entire news industry shell-shocked.
CBS caves to Trump with stunning $16 million settlement
Paramount Global, CBS’s parent company, completely folded under pressure and agreed to pay President Donald Trump a jaw-dropping $16 million to settle his massive lawsuit over their fraudulent 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris.The settlement, announced late Tuesday night, comes after months of negotiation to find an amount that both parties would accept.¹
The President will pocket $16 million that covers his legal costs and goes toward his future presidential library.¹
But the real kicker might be coming later.
Fox News Digital reports there’s talk of CBS having to shell out even more money down the road for conservative programming, though Paramount executives are pushing back on that idea.¹
CBS is not acknowledging any journalistic wrongdoing with the settlement, and no apology was required.¹
The fake news media titans just got hit where it hurts most – their wallets.
Trump’s legal team delivers devastating blow to mainstream media
Trump’s legal team didn’t mince words about what this settlement really means.
"With this record settlement, President Donald J. Trump delivers another win for the American people as he, once again, holds the Fake News media accountable for their wrongdoing and deceit. CBS and Paramount Global realized the strength of this historic case and had no choice but to settle", a spokesperson for Trump’s legal team told Fox News Digital.
The President’s legal machine has been systematically dismantling media giants one by one.
This comes after ABC News got slammed with a $15 million settlement back in December when anchor George Stephanopoulos kept saying Trump was "found liable for rape" when the jury actually found him liable for sexual abuse.¹
Facebook’s parent company Meta also coughed up about $25 million to settle Trump’s lawsuit over suspending his accounts after January 6th.¹
That’s over $56 million in settlements that Trump has extracted from Big Tech and mainstream media in just the past few months.
And he’s not done yet.
The 60 Minutes deception that backfired spectacularly
So what exactly did CBS do that was so outrageous?
Trump was seeking $20 billion in his lawsuit against CBS over its handling of a 60 Minutes interview last year with then-Vice President Kamala Harris, accusing the network of election interference leading up to the 2024 contest.
Here’s the smoking gun that exposed CBS’s fraud.
Trump’s lawsuit centered on how CBS handled Kamala Harris’s rambling response about Israel during her 60 Minutes interview. When correspondent Bill Whitaker asked why Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wasn’t listening to the Biden administration, Harris delivered one of her trademark word-salad responses.¹
But then CBS tried to pull a fast one.
They aired a completely different, more coherent portion of her answer during the primetime broadcast than what they showed in the preview clip.
They literally tried to make Kamala Harris look coherent by switching out her bumbling answer with a completely different response.
That’s not journalism – that’s Democrat campaign work disguised as news.
CBS executives thrown under the bus as Trump rule takes effect
The settlement came with a humiliating new requirement that shows just how thoroughly Trump dominated CBS.
CBS now has to follow what insiders are calling "the Trump Rule" – they must release complete, unedited transcripts whenever they interview presidential candidates in the future.¹
The Trump Rule.
That’s got to sting for the so-called "journalists" at CBS who thought they were above accountability.
But the real carnage happened inside CBS’s executive suites, where heads rolled as Trump’s pressure campaign worked to perfection.
The longtime head of CBS’ 60 Minutes resigned, as the network’s parent company contemplated the settlement with President Trump over his lawsuit focusing on an interview the show did with then-Vice President Kamala Harris last fall.
Bill Owens, who had been executive producer of 60 Minutes for years, resigned.
"Over the past months, it has also become clear that I would not be allowed to run the show as I have always run it," Bill Owens said in his resignation memo obtained by multiple outlets including NBC News. "To make independent decisions based on what was right for ’60 Minutes,’ right for the audience."²
CBS News president left too
But Owens wasn’t the only one.
CBS News President and CEO Wendy McMahon announced her resignation saying "the company and I do not agree on the path forward."³
Both McMahon and Owens had told colleagues they adamantly opposed a settlement with Trump.
CBS called the differences a journalistic decision. Legal observers and media lawyers almost uniformly declared the network should prevail and that Trump did not have firm legal grounds for a case.
But those legal experts were dead wrong.
CBS knew they were caught red-handed, and they couldn’t risk having Trump’s legal team drag them through discovery and depositions where even more embarrassing details would come to light.
The media establishment thought they could lie about Trump with impunity for years.
Those days are over.
Every network, every newspaper, and every social media platform now knows that if they try to deceive the American people about Donald Trump, they’re going to pay a steep price.
The fake news media is finally learning that there are consequences for their lies and deception.
And Donald Trump is just getting started.
Sources: ¹ Fox News Digital, "Paramount, CBS forced to pay eight figures, change editorial policy in settlement with President Trump," July 2, 2025 ² NBC News, "’60 Minutes’ producer leaves show, citing a loss of journalistic independence," April 23, 2025
³ NPR, "President of CBS News resigns as Trump lawsuit hovers over network," May 19, 2025 ⁴ CBC News, "Paramount settles lawsuit filed by Trump over CBS interview with Kamala Harris," July 2, 2025
