Donald Trump 1, Disney 0. Trump's long-running battle with Disney saw an unprecedented win for the president-elect this month, when the corporation's ABC News agreed to a $15 million settlement over a defamation lawsuit.
In a deal announced on December 14, ABC News agreed to pay the sum toward Trump's presidential library and issue a public apology in order to settle a defamation lawsuit over inaccurate statements made by anchor George Stephanopoulos during a broadcast earlier this year.
The lawsuit was filed after Stephanopoulos said during a March 10 segment of ABC News' This Week while interviewing Representative Nancy Mace, a South Carolina Republican, that Trump had been "found liable for rape." While Trump was last year found liable for sexually abusing and defaming writer E. Jean Carroll, neither verdict involved a finding of rape as defined under New York law.
Trump was last year ordered to pay Carroll $5 million after an initial lawsuit. In January, he was ordered to pay her $83.3 million on additional defamation claims. He is appealing both verdicts and has denied any wrongdoing.
ABC News' settlement with Trump was announced days after U.S. Magistrate Judge Lisette Reid ordered the incoming president and Stephanopoulos to submit to four-hour depositions. The settlement sparked a backlash from both sides of the political aisle, with one half framing it as a dishonest entity being justly punished and the other accusing the news outlet of kowtowing to Trump.
In his lawsuit, Trump had accused Stephanopoulos of acting with "actual malice," which would have been a tough task for the GOP figurehead to prove had the case gone to trial in April, as had been planned. On the surface, the odds favored ABC News, with the battle on course to becoming one of a number of Trump's unsuccessful lawsuits against the media.
Yet weeks after his stunning political comeback and presidential election triumph, Trump stands as a victor again—this time over a media outlet that he has publicly rubbished as a peddler of "fake news" on countless occasions.
Newsweek has contacted representatives of Trump and ABC News for comment.
Why Did ABC News Settle?
ABC News has not publicly shared its reasons for settling with Trump, which has only served to embolden theories that political pressure may have played a role.
Nicholas Creel, an associate professor of business law at Georgia College & State University, told Newsweek that Trump's lawsuit was "incredibly weak." He predicted that there was "almost no chance [Trump] would have won," given that there have been discussions on a national level regarding the definition of rape.
"The reason ABC settled, particularly for such a large sum, is that they are looking to bend the knee to a man who is coming to power on the explicit promise to take revenge on his enemies," he said. "The $15 million donation to Trump's future presidential library is just a way for them to communicate to him that they will capitulate to his demands, which they hope will save them from legal harassment from [Trump's] administration over the coming years."
When upholding the judgment in the first trial, Judge Lewis A. Kaplan wrote that the jury found Carroll had failed to prove that Trump raped her "within the narrow, technical meaning of a particular section of the New York Penal Law."
"The definition of rape in the New York Penal Law is far narrower than the meaning of 'rape' in common modern parlance, its definition in some dictionaries, in some federal and state criminal statutes, and elsewhere," he wrote.
However, Kaplan emphasized this did not mean Carroll "failed to prove that Mr. Trump 'raped' her as many people commonly understand the word 'rape.'"
In July, ABC News and Stephanopoulos attempted to dismiss Trump's lawsuit based on Kaplan's remarks, which they argued meant the rape claim was "substantially true." The motion was rejected in federal court.
Ken Sterling, a media and defamation attorney who lectures at USC Annenberg and at USC Gould School of Law, said that he was "not surprised" by the settlement.
"Power dynamics in media are a dominating force and Disney well understands what is coming in 2025," Sterling said told Newsweek, in reference to Trump's imminent return to office. "Their move to settle was strategic in an effort to mend fences and it was a survival move. Spending $15 million now to make peace with the most powerful person on earth is a very wise move and one that I would advise any client to make."
Sterling said that ABC News' decision "absolutely" serves as a major win for Trump, particularly in terms of the messaging it sends out.
"This settlement sends a signal when a 205+ billion dollar 'Goliath' settles a case that they likely would have prevailed on," he said. "This also sets an example and some would say a precedent. Nobody and no company, especially a media company, wants to be in the crosshairs of the U.S. president, or specifically on President Trump's hit list. He and his team have shown incredible acumen with navigating the media and the legal system.
"Disney may be the Goliath to the rest of the world, [but] they are most certainly David when it comes to President Trump's ways and the inertia his team has. The settlement sends a signal about the risks media companies may face in high-profile defamation cases."
With the defamation trial scheduled to take place in April, months after Trump's inauguration, ABC News may also have wanted to avoid the optics of battling it out in court with a sitting president. However, Sterling opined that the "larger reason is not to tangle with President Trump."
Michael Montgomery, a political scientist and lecturer at the University of Michigan-Dearborn's College of Education, Health, and Human Services, told Newsweek that ABC News' payout may have been a move to protect lucrative assets.
"The broadcast television networks are much more vulnerable to political pressure from a president than many people realize," he said. "ABC and the other broadcast TV networks themselves are not federally-licensed but each has 'O and O' (owned and operated) stations that are licensed by the FCC (Federal Communications Commission).
"ABC has eight O and Os, including ones in New York, Chicago, and L.A. Those eight TV licenses are worth billions of dollars and would be remarkably easy to suspend, revoke, or just not renew were a president truly inclined to do so."
Back in October 2017, the FCC stated that then-President Trump could not take away a TV network's license purely because he didn't like its reporting. The statement was made in response to Trump's charge that NBC had "become so partisan, distorted and fake that licenses must be challenged and, if appropriate, revoked."
Still, Mike Fahey, CEO and founder of Fahey Communications, a national PR firm specializing in political campaigns, recently told Newsweek that Trump could "threaten regulatory action—through the FCC or the Department of Justice, for instance—to make life very difficult" for ABC and Disney.
Trump's Battle with Disney
Trump has long had Disney in his sights. In a May 2023 social media post, he branded the entertainment juggernaut a "woke and disgusting shadow of its former self," in criticism of its move toward diverse casting in some of its recent movie remakes.
Following his September 10 debate with Democrat campaign rival Kamala Harris, Trump bemoaned ABC News' moderators, telling Fox News' Fox & Friends: "They ought to take away their license for the way they did that."
Disney's ABC TV network is home to The View, arguably the most anti-Trump show on the small screen, with panelists Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, and Sunny Hostin being among those who have continually spoken out against the onetime real estate mogul.
Rachel Zegler, who sparked ire among conservatives when it was announced that she had been cast as Snow White in an upcoming Disney film due to her Colombian heritage, posted "F*** Donald Trump," on Instagram following his election win.
Disney has faced the wrath of another Republican in the form of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Following pressure from employees, Disney publicly condemned DeSantis' Parental Rights in Education bill, known as the "don't say gay" law, which proposed limiting discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity in schools. The bold move hurt the company's standing among conservatives as well as its bottom line.
It also led to retribution from DeSantis, who pushed for Disney's special self-governing status over its 25,000-acre Reedy Creek Improvement District to be dissolved. The entity, which has been renamed the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District under state control, afforded Disney the power to operate as a self-governing authority in Florida, home of its famed Disney World resort, for more than 50 years.
In March 2024, Disney reached a settlement in its resulting legal battles, two weeks after DeSantis' education bill was largely overturned.
With Trump now returning to power, Sterling told Newsweek that the lingering sour taste of the DeSantis fallout has led to a battle-weary ABC waving the white flag.
"In my humble opinion, absolutely this [settlement] is a surrender, and an attempt to hold out the olive branch," he said. "They are likely shell shocked from the DeSantis battle, plus see the grim reality on the horizon with President Trump being unbeatable for the next four years.
"Others will say it's a business decision, and the settlement is less about bowing to Trump and more about managing risk. That is also a valid assessment."
Trump's media battles have gone beyond Disney. Over the years, he has sued journalists, news organizations, and book publishers for coverage that he was not pleased with. In October, he sued CBS News over how it edited a 60 Minutes interview with Vice President Harris.
While on the campaign trail, Trump openly spoke of his desire to seek retribution against his perceived enemies. Additionally, Kash Patel, Trump's nominee to lead the FBI, has spoken of plans to "come after" those in the media.
This week, Trump filed a lawsuit against former pollster J. Ann Selzer, the Des Moines Register, and its parent company for "brazen election interference" over a poll published days before November's election.
The November 2 poll conducted by Selzer, a widely respected pollster who has since retired, made headlines as it showed Harris leading Trump in the Republican-leaning state of Iowa by three percentage points. However, Trump ended up carrying Iowa by 13 points in the election.
A spokesperson for the Register dismissed the lawsuit as meritless in a statement to Newsweek. Selzer has denied setting up the poll to deliver a specific response.
"I'm doing this not because I want to, I'm doing this because I feel I have an obligation to," Trump said of the lawsuits during a December 16 press conference.
"I feel I have to do this. I shouldn't really be the one to do it. It should have been the Justice Department or somebody else but I have to do it. It costs a lot of money to do it. But we have to straighten out the press."
Changes at Disney
Following raging culture wars over such issues as LGBTQ+ rights and diversity, equity and inclusion, Disney appears to be tempering its progressive stance.
This week, it was announced that Disney had pulled a transgender storyline from the Pixar original animated series Win or Lose, citing the needs of parents.
The series follows Pickles, a co-ed middle school softball team, throughout the week as they prepare for their upcoming championship game. Each of the eight episodes focuses on a different character and their life off the field, including "the insecure kids, their helicopter parents" and "even a lovesick umpire."
However, ahead of the series' February 19 premiere on Disney+, it was reported that some lines of dialogue had been cut from an episode that references a character's gender identity.
A spokesperson for Disney confirmed that the story arc was removed, sharing in a statement: "When it comes to animated content for a younger audience, we recognize that many parents would prefer to discuss certain subjects with their children on their own terms and timeline."
The move goes against Disney's past decisions, which have included a storyline featuring a same-sex kiss in Pixar's 2022 animated film Lightyear, and the debut of a non-binary character in the animation Elemental, released in July 2023.
An exclusive poll for Newsweek conducted by Redfield and Wilton Strategies in July found that 34 percent of viewers disapproved of Disney's attempt to add more LGBTQ+ topics to its content. Surveying 1,500 eligible U.S. voters, they also discovered that 36 percent either disapproved or strongly disapproved of transgender characters.
Outside of content, there have also been changes in gestures from the decision makers at the top of Disney as it navigates a changing landscape.
Disney CEO Bob Iger, typically a reliable Democratic donor, kept his money out of this year's presidential race. Disney has also returned to advertising on X, formerly Twitter, after a yearlong break. Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X who has forged a close relationship with Trump, previously told Iger to "go f*** himself" for halting advertising on the platform.
Whatever Disney's reasons for settling with Trump, there are concerns that it could set a precedent. Fahey—who served as press secretary for Steve Laffey during his presidential campaign in 2023—said that "it may encourage [Trump] to go after even more media organizations in the future. And this really should concern us, because going after the media is right out of the authoritarian playbook. And make no mistake, Trump targeting the media hasn't led to good outcomes thus far."
For least at least the next four years, Disney is facing the reality of second-guessing its every move as it operates in a new climate under a returning Trump.
"As one of America's most iconic brands, Disney is not new to controversy or the spotlight, but navigating today's political landscape will require a deft touch," Evan Nierman, CEO of global PR firm Red Banyan, recently told Newsweek. "In this high-octane climate, even small missteps can turn into headlines and outrage that drags down shareholder value. The company will need to stay true to its values while keeping a careful eye on powerful political tides."
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