Trump says CNN should be sold as part of any Warner Bros. deal
President Donald Trump said Wednesday he believes it is “imperative” that CNN be sold, as its parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery, is preparing for a proposed merger with Netflix and faces a hostile takeover bid from Paramount.
“I think CNN should be sold, because I think the people who are running it right now are either corrupt or incompetent,” Trump told reporters during a roundtable with business executives at the White House.
“I don’t think they should be left running CNN any longer. So I think any deal should be guaranteed and certain that CNN is part of it or sold separately,” he added. “I think CNN should be sold with everything else.”
Trump’s comments came in response to a question about what changes he would like to see at the cable news network after The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that Paramount CEO David Ellison visited Trump in Washington and said he would make significant changes at CNN.
“I’ll probably be involved, maybe involved in the decision. It depends. There are good companies bidding,” Trump said before launching into a broader criticism of CNN’s leadership.
Warner Bros. Discovery announced last week that it had agreed to sell its film, television and streaming assets to Netflix in a $72 billion deal, which rises to more than $82 billion when debt is taken into account, following offers from Paramount Skydance and Comcast, owner of NBCUniversal, the parent company of NBC News.
The deal with Netflix would not include cable channels owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, such as CNN and TNT.
Neither CNN, Paramount, Warner Bros. Discovery nor Netflix immediately responded to requests for comment Wednesday on Trump’s remarks.
The president weighed in on merger plans on Sunday when he said the Netflix deal “could be a problem” because of the resulting market share issues. The next day, Paramount launched a hostile bid, offering shareholders $30 per share to acquire the media conglomerate. The bid will be supported in part by funding from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, as well as Affinity Partners, an investment firm founded by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Asked Monday during a roundtable discussion about the battle over Warner Bros. Discovery, Trump said: “None of them are particularly good friends, you know; I just, I want to do what’s right.”
If the Netflix deal is approved by federal regulators, channels like CNN and TNT would be part of a separate public company.
At Wednesday’s event, Trump disparaged a CNN reporter who asked him about the Pentagon’s release of video footage of a second strike on an alleged drug ship in September, which triggered investigations.
“You have to be CNN,” Trump said. “You know you work for the Democrats,” he said, adding, “you’re basically an arm of the Democratic Party.”
Trump has often clashed with CNN over its news coverage. During his first term, the White House revoked the press card of Jim Acosta, now a former CNN correspondent, after he pressed Trump on immigration and then-special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into his 2016 presidential campaign. After a brief court battle, the White House restored Acosta’s press access.
In 2022, Trump filed a defamation suit accusing CNN of slandering him for his false claims about the 2020 election. The case was dismissed less than a year later, and his attempt to revive the case this year was rejected by an appeals court.
