After making controversial comments about Mexicans during the launch of his campaign to win the Republican nomination for President in 2016, billionaire developer Donald Trump is now being forced to deal with the anger stemming from those comments.
Trump, who stated that Mexico sends people to the United States who are rapists, sell drugs and bring a criminal element, was told on June 29 by NBC that their business relationship had ended as a result of the comments. The network has shown his long-running reality television show, The Apprentice, for the last decade, and has also shown the Miss USA and Miss Universe beauty pageants, both of which were co-owned by Trump and the network.
The Miss USA Pageant was scheduled to be shown on NBC on July 12, with the Miss Universe contest following next January. However, the network has cancelled those showings, an action that has caused Trump to threaten litigation over.
That action followed soon after the Spanish-language network Univision had also cancelled its broadcast of the pageants, citing the comments. Trump soon indicated that he was suing the network for $500 million for both breach of contract and defamation. He indicated that the decision to cancel was politically-oriented and blocking his free speech rights.
According to Trump, Univision had agreed to broadcast the programs for five consecutive years beginning in 2015. The amount of that deal was a reported $13.5 million: $2.5 million for the first three years, followed by $3 million for the last two.