Trump says he wants a new owner for CNN as part of any sale of Warner Bros. Discovery: ‘A very dishonest group of people’

NyPost

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President Donald Trump said he wants CNN to have a new owner as part of any sale of its parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), signaling a preference for Paramount Skydance’s offer over last week’s winning bid from Netflix.

Netflix has agreed to purchase Warner Bros. studio and its HBO Max streaming service, leaving CNN’s current leadership intact. Paramount Skydance, however, wants to acquire all of WBD, including CNN, and place the network under the leadership of CBS news chief Bari Weiss.

Trump directly weighed in on the WBD sale Wednesday, telling reporters that CNN should be placed under “completely new management.” “I think any deal, it should be guaranteed and certain that CNN is part of it or sold separately, but I don’t think the people that are running that company right now and running CNN, which is a very dishonest group of people, I don’t think that should be allowed to continue,” the president said.

Sources say Trump’s intervention comes as Paramount Skydance executives, David Ellison and his father Larry, have been working to manage fallout with the White House over a controversial “60 Minutes” interview with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. The interview, which aired Sunday, drew criticism from Trump.

According to insiders, Paramount Skydance executives claim they were largely unaware of the interview before it aired. Trump reacted angrily, declaring that Paramount Skydance’s management “ARE NO BETTER THAN THE OLD OWNERSHIP” and said “60 Minutes has actually gotten WORSE!” He also criticized correspondent Leslie Stahl as a “Trump-hating” journalist and said his main issue was that Paramount allowed the segment to air.

A source close to the matter said, “They went rogue, and when Paramount Skydance found out, they were caught flatfooted.” Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison and company president Jeff Shell reportedly did not know about the broadcast until the day it ran.

A Paramount Skydance spokesperson referred all questions to CBS representative Chris Ender, who declined comment and did not confirm details of the report.

Trump’s public statements highlight the unusual role he is playing in the corporate review process, particularly in regulated industries like media. Media insiders say the president’s focus on CNN shows he wants to influence the deal to align with his political priorities, including addressing what he sees as the network’s anti-MAGA bias.

Paramount Skydance has used its connection with the president as part of its pitch to WBD shareholders. It argues that its bid presents less antitrust risk than Netflix’s and points to Larry Ellison’s long-standing support for Trump.

On Monday, Paramount Skydance launched a “hostile bid” to overturn WBD’s selection of Netflix, offering $30 per share in cash compared with Netflix’s $30.75 per share cash-and-stock deal. Netflix’s offer covers Warner Bros. studio and HBO Max, with plans to spin off cable properties like Discovery and CNN.

The deal’s final price remains uncertain. Sources say both Paramount Skydance and Netflix could push the value to $35 per share, or roughly $91 billion, up from WBD’s pre-sale market value of about $31 billion.