ABC settled its defamation suit with Trump for $15 million. Meta settled its suit with Trump for its post-January 6th suspension of his accounts for $25 million. The New York Times is reporting that Paramount, owner of 60 Minutes, is in settlement talks with Trump for editing the interview with Kamala Harris. What all three of these cases have in common is that enterprises that would normally fight to the death over challenges ranging from far-fetched to utterly frivolous have chosen instead to pay. And pay pretty big money.
Bribes? Some would say so, although the word bribe implies they are getting a quid pro quo, something concrete in exchange for their cash. There is no evidence that there is any quo for their quid.
Perhaps the notion is better described as nuisance value, even though nuisance value usually involves some insignificant payout made as a business decision to swat some annoying gnat and make it go away. Maybe an analogy to labor peace, the price some companies pay to unions to get the workers to come back to work so they can get back to making whatever it is they sell, and making the money they weren’t otherwise making.
But no matter what you call it, how you phrase it or what you want to believe it to be, there is one thing undeniable about these huge payments directly into Donald Trump’s open pocketbook. They were not made because of the merit of the underlying cases. And that being the case, they were throwing cash at Trump for some reason unrelated to the putative legal reason. And Trump is obviously happy to deposit their checks into his personal bank account.
It should be of some concern to the courts that their process is being used as a conduit to pay off a president. After all, neither Paramount, ABC nor Meta could just send Trump a check with a bunch of zeros and a note that says, “With love, Zuck.” That would be wrong. But if they sent the same check with “in settlement” marked in the memo, it magically launders the payment so that it’s totally lawful.
For those who need to believe that there is any merit to Trump’s absurd suits, the real version of lawfare as opposed to his feigned version, you are being lied to. If any of these same businesses did the same thing to you, they will not be settling, they will not be sending you a check in an amount over $11.39, and they will fight you to the bitter end before acquiescing to your fatuous claims. There is a reason for these companies not to capitulate to frivolous claims. Do it once and they could be deluged with similar frivolous claims by folks who believe they can get rich by suing, suing, suing.
Even Trump never believed that, but rather used frivolous suits as wedges to impose costs on others and create the pretense of victimhood and unfairness in case he lost the election because he was vulgar, deceitful, narcissistic ignoramus. But then he didn’t lose because people voted against Harris, and here he was, stuck with this silly suits. But their silliness gave way to opportunity, as these businesses saw opportunity where others saw frivolity.
It’s unclear whether paying off Trump will win these enterprises any love. Trump’s love is reserved for himself, and possibly Ivanka although that may be on the rocks these days. But at least it might buy them a reprieve from his retribution, his use of the levers of power to punish those who refused to drop to their knees and swallow. Trump didn’t nominate a sniveling little sycophantic weasel like K$H Patel to be FBI Director for nothing.
Whether these payoffs are money well spent or flushed down the toilet remains to be seen. Even if they buy some Trump peace for the moment, will they suffice should these businesses do something to piss Trump off later? What if Trump just wants some more of that sweet, sweet cash, and manufactures a grievance against Meta or the “fake media” when it fails to report on how he’s smartER than the generals? How many payouts are they willing to make, and if they fail to buy Ego Peace, will he come down on them like ton of bricks?
As business decisions go, this one could prove very costly. As Senator and later Secretary of War under Abraham Lincoln, Simon Cameron, said, “An honest politician is one who, when he is bought, will stay bought.” Trump is no honest politician.
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But he is a brilliant negotiator on the world stage with foreign nations. Pete Hegseth just said so. So it must be true. More proof? Well, as this post demonstrates, he’s using these news groups to subsidize the recent civil judgments rendered against him. True, the settlements you describe wont cover the entire amount of lhis losses. But there is lots more time to make it right. On an aside, I’m sure it can be tough to find new material to meet the needs of a daily blog. The election of 47 is la gift from the gods. No need to worry about any shortage in that department. You now have material for two or three posts a day. I ‘m a person who always likes to see the glass half full.
I think the proper phrase is protection money. Trying to keep DOJ, SEC and a host of other executive branch departments and agencies away from them for the next four years.
I think you nailed it, but will it enough to last for four years? Time will tell.
And that is called paying the Dane-geld;
But we’ve proved it again and again,
That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld
You never get rid of the Dane.
–Rudyard Kipling
Maybe ABC is hoping to get some breathing room before the new FCC commissioner goes after the broadcast licenses of their affiliates. I read earlier this morning that Brendan Carr has begun an investigation into PBS and NPR. I know I’ll likely take a beating for this but I don’t think anyone should take Trump’s previous threats lightly. Inch-by-inch, little-by-little and before we realize it Trump has made good on everything he said, everything we feared. [Ed. Note: Comparison to Nazi Germany deleted.]
Over on Reason, Jacob Sullum (a writer who nobody is likely to accuse of not hating Trump with sufficient fanaticism) suggests that Paramount was worried that the FCC would interfere with the sale of their company to Skydance. That seems fairly plausible to me.