Stephen Colbert

Stephen Colbert returned from his summer hiatus on Monday (July 14) and wasted no time calling out CBS’ parent company, Paramount, for its $16 million settlement with President Donald Trump.

“While I was on vacation, my parent corporation Paramount paid Donald Trump a $16 million settlement over his 60 Minutes lawsuit,” the late-night host said on Monday’s The Late Show. “As someone who has always been a proud employee of this network, I’m offended. I don’t know if anything will ever repair my trust in this company. But just taking a stab at it, I’d say $16 million would help.”

Trump and Paramount settled earlier this month over a lawsuit surrounding 60 Minutes. The President argued the show had edited an interview with Kamala Harris to make her appear more favorable in the lead-up to the 2024 presidential election. As Colbert explained, many legal experts, including Paramount’s own legal team, said the lawsuit was “completely without merit.”

“And keep in mind, Paramount produced Transformers: Rise of the Beasts. They know ‘completely without merit,’” he quipped.

Colbert continued, “Now, unlike the payoffs from ABC and Twitter, Paramount’s settlement did not include an apology. That’s good. Instead, the corporation released a statement where they said, ‘You may take our money, but you will never take our dignity. You may, however, purchase our dignity for the low, low price of $16 million. We need the cash.’”

The settlement comes as Paramount is hoping to sell to a new owner, Skydance, a deal which requires FCC approval. Colbert said, “I believe this kind of complicated financial settlement with a sitting government official has a technical name in legal circles: It’s big fat bribe.”

“Because this all comes as Paramount’s owners are trying to get the Trump administration to approve the sale of our network to a new owner, Skydance,” he added. “And some of the TV typers out there are blogging that once Skydance gets CBS, the new owner’s desire to please Trump could ‘put pressure on late night host and frequent Trump critic Stephen Colbert.’”

“Okay, but how are they going to put pressure on Stephen Colbert if they can’t find him?” the comedian said as he moved closer to the camera and pointed at his new mustache.

You can watch Colbert’s full opening monologue in the video above and let us know your thoughts in the comments below.