President Trump is angling for a massive payout from CBS – significantly more than what he accepted from ABC and Meta – to settle his $10 billion lawsuit over alleged election interference, The Post has learned.
Sources with knowledge of the negotiations told The Post that Trump’s lawyers are poised to ask for as much as nine figures – a sum that would vastly exceed the $16 million recently paid by ABC and the $25 million doled out by Meta in recent weeks.
The two sides began “very preliminary” discussions last week over the controversial “60 Minutes” interview with Kamala Harris, which Trump has claimed was deceptively edited to boost the Democrat in the presidential race.
Trump’s team has yet to propose a settlement offer to Paramount, a source with knowledge of the negotiations told The Post.
But a source close to Trump’s legal team said he would not be surprised if the president demanded $100 million — or more.
“Is $100 million or $150 million a possibility? I don’t see why not,” the source said.
The expected nine-figure opening salvo from Team Trump would be similar to the hard-knuckle negotiating tactics used by his legal team against ABC in its defamation suit after star anchor George Stephanopoulos insisted that Trump was “found liable of rape,” the source added.
Those negotiations involved Donald Trump Jr., according to the insider.
The president’s oldest son, whose participation in the talks has not previously been reported, had reached a tentative deal for around $15 million but then Trump’s lawyers jacked up the demand to roughly three times that amount, the source said.
The two sides finally settled on $15 million being donated to Trump’s presidential library and another $1 million in lawyers’ fees.
“I think what happened with ABC proves Trump will be very aggressive,” the source said.
ABC declined to comment.
CBS parent Paramount Global and the media giant’s controlling stakeholder Shari Redstone have a lot riding on getting the issue resolved as she looks to finally close the merger with the Larry and David Ellison controlled Skydance Media.
The $8 billion deal – $2 billion less than what Trump is suing CBS for in a Texas court – was expected to close in the first quarter of the year. The Redstone family is set to walk away with $1.75 billion.
But the deal faces intense scrutiny from the Federal Communications Commission, which has scheduled a public hearing late next month over “news distortion” allegations against CBS News.
On Wednesday, Trump-appointed FCC chair Brendan Carr released the unedited transcript and video of Harris’ “60 Minutes” sit-down, which revealed that the venerated news program cut down one of her “word salad” answers about Israel to just 20 words.
“Carr is trying to kick the can down the road so he doesn’t have to make a decision on approving the merger,” a source close to the talks speculated, and will give the parties a chance to settle before the FCC steps in.
Representatives for CBS and the FCC declined to comment.
Trump slammed the network in a post on Truth Social after the release of the transcripts.
“This was election changing ‘stuff’, election interference and, quite simply election fraud at a level never seen before. CBS should lose its license,” he wrote.
A lawyer for Trump also claimed “CBS and its parent company Paramount deceived the American people.”
“Real accountability for CBS and Paramount will ensure that the President is compensated for the harm done to him, and will deter the Fake News from further distorting the facts to advance a partisan agenda,” Trump attorney Ed Paltzik told The Post.
