Latest news with #Trump-age
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Team Trump Told Max Boss to Kiss Up by Giving Don Jr. a Show
Media giant Warner Bros. Discovery was reportedly offered a way into President Donald Trump's good graces: Give his son, Donald Trump Jr., his own show. Specifically, someone in the 'Trump orbit' told the company that the first son would like to host a nature show on Discovery, according to a sprawling new profile of WBD's CEO David Zaslav penned by the writer Michael Wolff for New York Magazine. Wolff has authored several books on President Donald Trump's ascent to power, which his team have repeatedly slammed as containing falsehoods and exaggerations. 'WBD confirmed that a company representative recently reached out to the Trump orbit seeking advice about how the company might advantageously interact with the White House and improve its Trump-age odor,' Wolff wrote. While WBD owns several notable properties like Max and the Discovery Channel, it also owns CNN, the news network that has for years been the target of Trump's anger. 'The reported message was to look at the example of Amazon and Jeff Bezos paying Melania Trump $40 million to participate in a documentary about herself,' he continued. 'Don Jr. might like a hunting and fishing show on the Discovery Channel, they were told. And that CNN could have more pro-Trump voices.' In a statement to the Daily Beast, White House Communications Director Steven Cheung said: 'Michael Wolff is a lying sack of s*** and has been proven to be a fraud. He routinely fabricates stories originating from his sick and warped imagination, only possible because he has a severe and debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome that has rotted his peanut-sized brain.' Wolff recently attracted the Trump administration's ire after publishing a book on his 2024 presidential campaign, All or Nothing: How Trump Recaptured America. When asked about revelations claimed in the book by the Daily Beast in February, Cheung again branded the author as a 'lying sack' of feces with a 'peanut-sized brain.' Representatives for WBD did not immediately respond to the Daily Beast's request for comment. The media conglomerate's reported attempt at currying favor with the president is but one example of a shifting industry landscape trying to adjust to the glaring light of Trump's second term. Paramount Global for example, has reportedly scaled back its diversity, equity, and inclusion programs to appease the Trump administration's directives as it seeks FCC approval for a merger deal with Hollywood power player Skydance Media.
Yahoo
14-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Michael Wolff Suggests Trump Team Floated a Don Jr. Outdoors Show as a Way for Warners to Curry Favor With White House
In a Monday story for New York magazine, Michael Wolff said Warner Bros. Discovery 'confirmed' to him an unusual suggestion they received from within 'the Trump orbit': If the company wants to curry favor with the administration, maybe give Donald Trump Jr. 'a hunting and fishing show' on Discovery Channel. The purported Trump insider pointed to a recent (and very lucrative) Amazon deal for a documentary on First Lady Melania Trump as an 'example' of how to 'advantageously interact with the White House.' The implications were laid out in the penultimate paragraph of a lengthy Wolff profile on Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav. More from The Hollywood Reporter 'SNL' Spoofs 'The White Lotus' With Donald Trump Twist: "The White POTUS" Keith Olbermann Condemns Bill Maher's Positive Visit With Trump, Says It's "So He Can Keep His HBO Show" Bill Maher Says Donald Trump Was "Gracious" and "Willing to Listen" During White House Visit 'WBD confirmed that a company representative recently reached out the Trump orbit seeking advice about how the company might advantageously interact with the White House and improve its Trump-age odor,' Wolff wrote. 'The reported message was to look at the example of Amazon and Jeff Bezos paying Melania Trump $40 million to participate in a documentary about herself. Don Jr. might like a hunting and fishing show on the Discovery Channel, they were told.' When The Hollywood Reporter reached the White House via email, we received this in response: 'Michael Wolff is a lying sack of shit and has been proven to be a fraud. He routinely fabricates stories originating from his sick and warped imagination, only possible because he has a severe and debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome that has rotted his peanut-sized brain.' Steven Cheung Cheung is White House Communications Director. It should be noted that the same exact statement has been shared repeatedly with members of the media who bring Michael Wolff's name up to the administration. THR reached out to Warner Bros. Discovery for this story, but we did not receive a response. Zaslav is a Democrat, but if he wants to pull off any more mergers even remotely resembling the 2021 blockbuster combination of his Discovery, Inc. and AT&T's WarnerMedia, he will need an OK from Trump's Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). WBD has taken steps toward spinning off its cable-channels business from its streaming platforms (mostly Max) and studios. NBCUniversal is further down the road on doing basically the same thing with the temporarily named SpinCo.; there has been some speculation that the unwanted NBCU cable channels headed to SpinCo. and the Discovery portfolio of networks could potentially combine. The creation of Warner Bros. Discovery brought CNN under Zaslav's purview, causing friction between he and Trump, who won the presidency in 2016 and 2024, but lost in 2020. Zaslav has called CNN a 'crown jewel' of the mega-company he now oversees, but the cable news network has consistently been Trump's no. 1 nemesis (of many nemeses) in the media. Best of The Hollywood Reporter 'Yellowstone' and the Sprawling Dutton Family Tree, Explained The Cast of 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer,' Then and Now A 'Star Wars' Timeline: All the Movies and TV Shows in the Franchise
