Trump endorses Paramount merger with David Ellison's Skydance
On Wednesday, Trump was asked about the hold-up in the federal review of Skydance's takeover of the storied entertainment company. The question came as reporters clustered around the president on the White House lawn to watch the installation of a flagpole.
The Paramount-Skydance deal has been pending at the Federal Communications Commission since late last fall.
Trump said he hoped the deal goes through.
'Ellison is great. He'll do a great job with it,' Trump said.
Then he appeared to connect the merger-review delay to his lawsuit against CBS and its parent Paramount over last fall's '60 Minutes' interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris.
Trump has maintained since last October that the Harris interview was edited to burnish her chances in the November election. CBS has denied the allegations, saying the edits were routine. The raw footage showed Harris was accurately quoted, but Trump's team said he suffered 'mental anguish' from the broadcast.
'They interviewed Kamala. Her answer was horrendous,' Trump said Wednesday. 'I would say it was election-threatening. I would say election-threatening because it was so incompetent.'
1st Amendment experts have called Trump's case frivolous, but Paramount wants to avoid waging an extensive legal fight. Paramount's leaders have pursued a settlement to help clear a path for the company's sale to Skydance — a deal that needs the approval of the FCC.
The mediation process to resolve the lawsuit, filed in a Texas court, has become protracted.
'They are working on a settlement,' Trump said Wednesday. He mentioned that two high-level CBS executives — the head of CBS News and the executive producer of '60 Minutes' — had abruptly departed as the merger review dragged on.
'They're all getting fired,' he said.
Late last week, Trump's legal team filed court documents asking for a deadline extension in the discovery process, disclosing the two sides were working to reach a resolution.
Earlier this month, Ellison met Trump briefly while the two men were sitting ringside at a UFC fight in New Jersey, according to video footage shared online. Skydance declined to discuss Ellison's interaction with Trump.
It marked the second time this year that Ellison chatted with the president at a UFC match. The first was in April.
It's been nearly a year since Paramount's controlling shareholder Shari Redstone and fellow Paramount directors approved the two-phased $8-billion deal that will hand the company to the son of tech billionaire Larry Ellison, who is a Trump supporter. The deal will also see the Ellison family buy the Redstone investment vehicle, National Amusements Inc.
Santa Monica-based Skydance intends to consolidate the company that boasts the Melrose Avenue Paramount film studio, Paramount+ streaming service, CBS and cable channels including Comedy Central, Showtime and BET.
Skydance operations and personnel will be folded into Paramount.
The deal faces one final regulatory hurdle: FCC Chairman Brendan Carr's consent to transfer 29 CBS television station licenses to the Ellisons from the Redstones. This week, the Senate approved Trump's second Republican appointment to the panel, Olivia Trusty.
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