Variety Op-Ed: “Elizabeth Warren on Colbert 'Late Show' Cancellation: Is the Paramount Trump Payoff a Bribe?”

“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.”
“The moment we turn a blind eye to these deals is the moment we start to lose our democracy.”
Washington, D.C. –Today, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) published an op-ed inVarietymaking the case thatthe Late Show with Stephen Colbert’s cancellation may be another one of Donald Trump’s attempts to get big corporations to buy his favor and bow down before him.
Senator Warren has been leading the charge to determine if Paramount is bribing President Trump in exchange for approval of its multi-billion-dollar megamerger with Skydance, and has fought relentlessly across the board against President Trump's corruption.
Read the full op-edhereand below:
Variety - Elizabeth Warren on Colbert's 'Late Show' Cancellation: Is the Paramount Trump Payoff a Bribe?July 23, 2025
President Donald Trump and CBS parent company Paramount want you to think thatThe Late Show with Stephen Colbertwas canceled for “purelyfinancial” reasons. Really?
During the 2024 election, Donald TrumpsuedCBS, making claims CBScalled“meritless.” Legalexpertscould 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.
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 CEOspaidmillions 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 tomergewith Skydance, another huge media company. This deal is worth $8billion– 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’sapprovedby the Trump administration.
Instead of fighting Trump on his “meritless” lawsuit, Paramountsettled, 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: “This 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 beforecelebratingthe 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 Newshandedover $15 million to Trump’s presidential library in a settlement for anotherquestionabledefamation lawsuit. Trump was even more direct with Mark Zuckerberg,reportedlytelling 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 anddumping$22 million into the Trump library. And Trump is running the same play again: immediately after Paramount folded, Trumpsuedthe Wall Street Journal over an article that exposed details about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
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.
I recently introduced myPresidential Library Anti-Corruption Actto close at least one bribery loophole. Thisbillwould block anyone from dumping tens of millions of dollars into a president’s library slush fund while that president still sits in the Oval Office. It would mean Paramount couldn’t funnel nearly $16 million to Trump’s library while it seeks favors from his administration. It would mean Qatar couldn’t “gift” Trump a $400millionprivate jet destined for some future library. This is a basic, common-sense reform that would help ensure that the government works for the American public, not just for people willing to pay for presidential favors. But that’s just Step One.
Trump and his billionaire friends may think they can turn the power of the federal government into a tool they can deploy to make themselves richer while the rest of us stand quietly by. But we understand that the moment we turn a blind eye to these deals is the moment we start to lose our democracy.
In the coming weeks, months, and years, all of us must show Trump that we see his march toward authoritarianism and we will not be silenced. Democrats need to embrace the fight against corruption as a top priority. Republicans need to grow a spine and get behind common-sense anti-corruption measures. All Americans need to speak up. Because yes, it’s a shame that CBS canceledThe Late Show with Stephen Colbert, but it is a threat to all of us that thetoplate-night show in the country may have been canceled in order to curry favor with a wannabe king.
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