Shari Redstone calls Trump, Paramount $16M deal ‘no-brainer’

Former non-executive chairwoman for Paramount Global, Shari Redstone, said the decision for her company to settle the CBS lawsuit with President Trump for $16M was a “no-brainer.”

Redstone expected the Trump settlement to cost way more, as she was “blown away” that the company paid just $16 million to make the litigation go away.

On Tuesday, Aug. 19, in an interview published in The New York Times, Paramount's controlling shareholder, Redstone, finally addressed the highly talked-about Trump–Paramount settlement over the CBS lawsuit.

“This case was never as black-and-white as people assumed,” Redstone said. “I believed it was always in Paramount’s best interest to settle. We may not like the world we live in, but a board has to do what’s in the best interest of shareholders.”

Redstone shared that she pulled herself away from negotiations with Trump’s lawyers about the lawsuit.

However, when she heard from her lawyer that Paramount had made the settlement of $16M, she said, “I was blown away,” because she expected the company to have to pay a higher price.

“How did they do it? I don’t know, and I didn’t ask,” Redstone said.

Paramount has recently been sold to Skydance Media. After the deal, CBS announced the decision to cancel The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, which was thought to be a result of the deal.

In this context, Redstone’s “no-brainer” comment may close a legal chapter, but it risks opening a cultural contradiction.

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