The Scoop
CBS News is learning that several million dollars go a long way to healing a relationship with President Donald Trump.
The president spent months fuming at CBS News and sued the network and its parent company, Paramount, over the editing of an interview with Vice President Kamala Harris during the 2024 election. Despite serious legal doubts about whether Trump’s argument would succeed in court, Paramount opted instead to pay Trump $16 million to settle the lawsuit.
Now, he appears ready to talk again.
Trump is set to sit down with CBS anchor Norah O’Donnell on Friday afternoon, Semafor has learned. O’Donnell flew down to Florida on Thursday to prepare for the Trump interview, which Semafor previously reported was weeks in the making. It will mark the president’s first time sitting down with the network since the lawsuit.
Max’s view
CBS is in the midst of a deliberate repositioning aimed, at least in part, at gesturing to the center and the right.
The network decided against renewing the contract of Stephen Colbert, the late night host who has regularly needled Trump and expressed support for mainstream Democrats (critics, internally and externally, said Colbert was increasingly too expensive to maintain).
Following new owner David Ellison’s acquisition of Paramount, he quickly bought the Free Press and installed its founder Bari Weiss atop CBS News; Weiss had made a name for herself as an opinion writer who critiqued what she believed was the illiberal and censorious online left in academia, progressive politics, and the news media. CBS also appointed a new ombudsman who had previously run the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank.
In recent months, the Trump administration’s pressure has altered editorial policies at the network. CBS agreed earlier this year to release full transcripts of future 60 Minutes presidential interviews. And following criticism from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s team over an interview on the network’s Sunday show, Face The Nation, CBS News announced that in the future it would only air unedited interviews on the program.
Trump has returned the favor by publicly nodding in the network’s direction.
During an appearance on Air Force One earlier this month, Trump speculated with the press corps about who would be the next anchor of CBS Evening News, and praised the Ellisons.
“Larry Ellison is great, and his son, David, is great. They’re friends of mine. They’re big supporters of mine. And they’ll do the right thing,” Trump said.
“And it’s got great potential. CBS has great potential,” he added.
In addition to praise from the president and some one-on-one access, Trump’s decision, for the moment, to bless Paramount could help it improve its business in other ways. The New York Post reported that people close to Trump believed Paramount had the inside track with federal regulators in its bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery; its most likely rival potential bidder, Comcast, faces a more steep regulatory hurdle if Trump’s statements about the company are considered.