CBS Boss David Ellison Hosts Private Dinner 'Honoring' Trump After Clearing Major Hurdle to Acquire CNN
CBS Boss David Ellison Hosts Private Dinner 'Honoring' Trump After Clearing Major Hurdle to Acquire CNN
Joseph KonigThu, April 23, 2026 at 9:09 PM UTC
0
David Ellison, CEO of Paramount Skydance. President Donald Trump.Credit: David Becker/Getty; Taylor Hill/WireImage -
President Donald Trump will be honored at a dinner hosted by Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison at the retitled "Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace" on Thursday, according to Variety
The dinner comes as Ellison is seeking Justice Department approval for a proposed $111 billion merger with CNN’s parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery
Thousands of Hollywood actors, writers, directors and producers — including Bryan Cranston, Glenn Close, Jane Fonda, Jason Bateman, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Robert De Niro and dozens of other stars —signed a letter calling for the deal to be stopped
On the evening of Thursday, April 23, at 7 p.m., President Donald Trump will be honored at a dinner hosted by Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison — who runs CBS News and whose proposed $111 billion merger with CNN’s parent company moved forward on Thursday — at the retitled "Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace," according to a Variety report.
The 7:15 p.m. closed press dinner is around the corner from Washington’s John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, which also now bears Trump's name. It is being hosted by Ellison as the billionaire seeks approval from Trump’s Department of Justice for his 12-figure acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, according to the report.
The president’s official schedule notes the private dinner at the Institute of Peace on Thursday night, but the White House did not respond to a request for comment on Ellison’s role in the dinner and the proposed merger.
Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Steve Witkoff at the Institute of Peace on Feb. 19.Credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty
The Justice Department — which is now led by acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, the president’s former criminal defense attorney — declined to comment.
“Today’s stockholder approval is another key milestone toward completing this historic transaction that will deliver exceptional value to our stockholders,” Warner Bros. CEO David Zaslav said in a statement.
Zaslav could receive a severance package as high as $887 million if the deal goes through, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Paramount said in a statement that it hopes to close the deal in the coming months and begin “realizing the creation of a next-generation media and entertainment company that better serves both the creative community and consumers.”
Thousands of Hollywood actors, writers, directors and producers — including Bryan Cranston, Glenn Close, Jane Fonda, Jason Bateman, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Robert De Niro and dozens of other stars — signed a letter opposing the merger and calling on state attorneys general to pursue legal action to block it.
David Ellison, CEO of Paramount Skydance, speaks during CinemaCon 2026 on April 16 in Las Vegas.Credit: David Becker/Getty
CBS News — which has experienced upheaval and been accused of deference to Trump since Ellison installed new editor-in-chief Bari Weiss atop the newsroom — did not immediately respond to a request for comment. CBS News correspondents are reportedly being honored alongside the president at the dinner, according to Variety.
CNN’s representatives also did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s requests for comment on Thursday.
President Donald Trump watches a CNN clip at a summit on March 27 in Miami Beach, Fla.Credit: Nathan Howard/Getty
Trump’s Justice Department approved Ellison’s merger of Paramount and Skydance last year and Netflix backed out of a deal to purchase Warner Bros. after CEO Ted Sarandos met with the president at the White House in February and shortly after CBS News gave $16 million to Trump’s presidential library to settle his lawsuit against them over a 60 Minutes interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris during the 2024 campaign.
Advertisement
Ellison, as well as his father and Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, has been a supporter of the president politically and has sought to curry favor with the administration since Trump returned to the White House last year. In February, he attended the State of the Union address as a guest of South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, a close ally of the president.
And last November, Ellison attended a private dinner with Trump and Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman alongside other billionaires, CEOs, Fox News hosts and athletes, including soccer megastar Cristiano Ronaldo and golfer Bryson DeChambeau.
"The sooner David Ellison takes over that network, the better,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said as he criticized reporting from CNN during a Pentagon press conference in March.
David Ellison, chairman and CEO of Paramount Skydance, attends the State of the Union address on Feb. 24.Credit: Anna Moneymaker/Getty
Protests organized by Democratic and anti-corruption groups were planned for Thursday night outside the Institute of Peace. Those will follow the “block the merger” protests outside Warner Bros. headquarters in New York on Thursday morning, according to CNN’s Brian Stelter.
“This merger is bad for New Yorkers three times over. Thousands of jobs at risk here in the city. Streaming bills going up as competition disappears,” New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani wrote. “And two of America’s most powerful media companies under one roof, deciding what you watch and what you hear.”
— sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Other prominent Democrats were quick to denounce the merger. New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, the top Democrat on the Senate’s antitrust subcommittee, warned that “this mega corporation will be run by a single family riddled with conflicts of interest that have shown a willingness to bend the knee to Donald Trump” and that “it’ll cut jobs, jack up prices for consumers, choke free speech, and put outsized power in the hands of one mega corporation.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., boosted messages from actors Ben Stiller and Mark Ruffalo, who argued their HBO projects, Severance and I Know This Much Is True, respectively, would not have been made if there were even less competition from Hollywood studios and streamers than there already is in the heavily consolidated entertainment industry.
“The Paramount-Warner Bros. merger will consolidate power even further—hurting workers and consumers,” Warren wrote. “When it comes to what stories are told and what news is reported, that’s dangerous for democracy.”
CBS’ The Late Show with Stephen Colbert — which was canceled three days after Colbert criticized Paramount for settling the 60 Minutes lawsuit with Trump — announced Warren would be on the show Thursday night.
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
