The bid by Netflix to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery is under federal review, and President Donald Trump has voiced his opinion that it “should be guaranteed and certain that CNN is part of it or sold separately.” He spoke about it with the press at the White House on Wednesday (Dec. 10), targeting the current management of the news network.
“I think the people that have run CNN for the last, long period of time are a disgrace,” Trump said. “I think it’s imperative that CNN be sold, because you certainly wouldn’t want to put people, just leave those people with some money, good money, and CNN, so that they can spend even more money spreading poison, because it’s lies. It’s a disgrace.”
Trump’s remarks come after Netflix made a successful deal to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery’s studios as well as HBO Max for a reported $82.7 billion. Notably, the deal does not include WBD’s television network properties including CNN. Those networks would become part of a new entity known as Discovery Global.
Paramount Skydance, which is headed by David Ellison, launched a hostile takeover bid for all of Warner Bros. Discovery. The bid is backed by a conglomerate composed of the sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Abu Dhabi along with Affinity Partners, led by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison (David Ellison’s father),RedBird Capital Partners; and Apollo Global Management.
Trump’s comments about CNN seems to signal that he would favor Paramount Skydance’s bid over the Netflix deal, but he claimed that he had “never spoken with” Kushner about the bid at a White House briefing on Monday. He’s also boasted about his friendship with the Ellisons, but lashed out at them over the interview of GOP Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene on 60 Minutes last Sunday. “60 Minutes has actually gotten WORSE!” he wrote on Truth Social.
Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren has spoken out against both bids and has also blasted Trump’s comments on CNN, questioning if the network should be “controlled by a political ally of the President.”
