Donald Trump is ready to move on from the legal entanglement stemming from the Miss USA mess earlier this year.
The GOP presidential candidate has purchased NBC’s stake in the Miss Universe Organization and settled the lawsuits regarding the matter.
Trump made the announcement on Twitter Friday morning, writing, “Just purchased NBC’s half of The Miss Universe Organization and settled all lawsuits against them. Now own 100% — stay tuned!”
Trump filed a whopping $500 million lawsuit against Univision in June, after the network decided to drop the Miss USA pageant, citing Trump’s “recent, insulting remarks about Mexican immigrants.”
“Simply stated, Univision has no right to terminate its relationship with [the organization] and refuse to broadcast the upcoming Miss USA pageant,” the complaint read. According to Trump, the agreement between Univision and the Miss Universe Organization “does not give Univision the right to terminate simply because it does not agree with Mr. Trump’s longstanding views or statements, all of which are protected under the First Amendment and have been echoed by many in this county.”
Just purchased NBC’s half of The Miss Universe Organization and settled all lawsuits against them. Now own 100% — stay tuned!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 11, 2015
Trump’s lawyer also threatened legal action against NBC, which likewise cut ties with Trump. In addition to bouncing Trump from “Celebrity Apprentice,” the network said that it will no longer air the Miss Universe and Miss USA pageants, which were co-owned by its corporate parent NBCUniversal and Trump.
Instead, this year’s Miss USA contest ran on Reelz, where it drew 2.5 million total viewers, 3 million less than the pageant logged on NBC the previous year.
The pageant was also a money pit for Reelz, with network CEO Stan E. Hubbard telling TheWrap: “Did we break even on our financial investment? We did not.”