President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that CBS and its parent company Paramount Global will pay an additional $20 million to resolve his lawsuit over the network’s deceptive editing of a 60 Minutes interview with Vice President Kamala Harris.
This comes on top of the $16 million CBS previously agreed to contribute to Trump’s presidential library, bringing the total payout to $36 million.
“CBS and its Corporate Owners knew that they defrauded the American People, and were desperate to settle,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“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.”
Lawsuit Alleged “Deliberate Deception”
Trump originally filed the suit seeking $10 billion in damages, accusing CBS and 60 Minutes of knowingly manipulating Harris’s October 2024 interview to protect her politically during a volatile time in the Israel–Hamas conflict.
The unedited footage, released by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) earlier this year, painted a markedly different picture of Harris’s stance on U.S. influence over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In the version aired by 60 Minutes, Harris gave a vague call for peace. However, omitted portions broadcast a day earlier on Face the Nation revealed she had acknowledged direct influence by the U.S. over Israel’s actions.
Trump’s lawsuit argued this was not merely bad reporting, but “deceitful, deceptive manipulation of news.”
FCC Investigation Confirmed Key Omissions
FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr launched an inquiry in October 2024. The commission later confirmed the aired segment was heavily edited, misleading viewers about Harris’s position and the administration’s involvement in Middle East diplomacy.
The full, unedited interview, twice as long as the televised version, exposed the extent to which CBS producers reshaped Harris’s answers to suit a particular narrative.
CBS in Crisis Mode
This is the second legal defeat for a major broadcaster at Trump’s hands in under a year. In December, Trump also secured a $15 million settlement from ABC in a separate defamation case.
The timing couldn’t be worse for CBS, which just days ago announced the cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert following financial losses estimated at $40–$50 million per year.
The network’s parent company, Paramount Global, is also in the middle of a high-stakes $8 billion merger with Skydance Media—a deal that critics, including Colbert himself, claim may have motivated the settlement.
