Sen. Elizabeth Warren says “Donald Trump is the most corrupt president in American history.”
“He is using that corruption to gain control over independent organizations and people who might hold him to account. Every threat, use of intimidation, and potential bribe undermines our democracy as it moves Trump closer to absolute control.
President Donald Trump and CBS parent company Paramount want you to think that “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” was canceled for “purely financial” reasons. Really?
During the 2024 election, Donald Trump sued CBS, making claims CBS called “meritless.” Legal experts could see from a mile away that Trump’s claims were bogus. Paramount seemed ready to fight the allegations, and it looked like they’d win that fight handily. Then Trump took office in January 2025.
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From the first moments of his presidency, Trump quickly made it clear that he was happy to use his executive power to enrich himself. He was eager to hand out favors — for the right price — and threaten punishment for those who pushed back. There’s a reason that billionaire CEOs paid millions of dollars to get front-row access to his inauguration.
This is where questions about a Paramount payout to Trump come in. Right now, Paramount is trying to merge with Skydance, another huge media company. This deal is worth $8 billion – and, by the way, it could raise prices for millions of viewers. But here’s the kicker: This merger can only go through if it’s approved by the Trump administration.
Instead of fighting Trump on his “meritless” lawsuit, Paramount settled, handing $16 million to Trump’s presidential library. This looks like bribery in plain sight, and that’s exactly what Stephen Colbert said on his show: “[T]his kind of complicated financial settlement with a sitting government official has a technical name in legal circles: it’s ‘big, fat bribe.’” Three days later, Paramount-owned CBS canceled Colbert’s show. And Trump didn’t waste a moment before celebrating the news.
Was it a coincidence that CBS canceled Colbert just three days after he spoke out? Are we sure that this wasn’t part of a wink-wink deal between the president and a giant corporation that needed something from his administration? If CBS made this decision for “purely financial” reasons, why the timing? And why did Trump say “I hope I played a major part in” getting Colbert fired? These are fair questions, and ones that I have asked Paramount and Skydance.
The Paramount payoff is part of a corrupt pattern of Trump exploiting the power of the presidency both to profit personally and to punish his perceived enemies.
ABC News handed over $15 million to Trump’s presidential library in a settlement for another questionable defamation lawsuit. Trump was even more direct with Mark Zuckerberg, reportedly telling him that the price for being “brought in the tent” of the new Trump administration was to settle another doubtful lawsuit. Zuckerberg immediately bowed down, ending Meta’s fact-checking program and dumping $22 million into the Trump library. And Trump is running the same play again: immediately after Paramount folded, Trump sued the Wall Street Journal over an article that exposed details about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
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As Trump works to dampen any criticism in the media, he has also launched attacks on other independent institutions. In his first few months in office, Trump has aggressively threatened both universities and law firms in an effort to force them to bend to his will. The pattern is the same: Trump threatens to bring down the weight of the federal government on a single institution, and, too often, the targets feel they have no option but to bow down to an all-powerful Trump.
And for everyone in the free press, the academic world and the legal system, Trump has delivered his message with ruthless bluntness: If you criticize him, you could be forced to pay dearly.
The wealthy and well-connected have long had outsized influence in Washington, but Donald Trump is the most corrupt president in American history. He is using that corruption to gain control over independent organizations and people who might hold him to account. Every threat, use of intimidation, and potential bribe undermines our democracy as it moves Trump closer to absolute control.
