Latest news with #Trump-blessed
Business Insider
3 days ago
- Business
- Business Insider
Murdoch stood up to Trump. Did Paramount fold?
A shocking change in late-night TV. A salacious story about Jeffrey Epstein. What do they have in common? Donald Trump. Specifically, Trump's use of the Presidency to bend media companies to his will. It's a power he's used so effectively in his second term that any threat he makes has to be taken seriously. And that any decision a big media company makes will be seen through a Trump-colored lens, regardless of the facts — which ends up increasing that power. In the case of Paramount's call to end Stephen Colbert's late-night show, there's no evidence that the company's current owner, Shari Redstone, made the move to appease Trump by kiboshing a TV host who routinely rips into the president. The same goes for Larry Ellison and David Ellison, who plan to buy Paramount via their Skydance studio. Paramount itself took pains to say the decision was "purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night." And as we constantly note here, late-night TV — and all TV — is very much challenged: Ratings for just about any conventional TV programming that isn't the NFL are shrinking. And the viewers who watch late-night shows like Colbert's have been dwindling, and aging, for years. Subtract Trump from the story, and this would be just another signpost telling us that the internet has supplanted TV. And that the TV industry doesn't know how to deal with it other than a never-ending series of cuts and garage sales. "Over the next few years, we expect virtually all linear TV programming outside of sports and news to shift to catalog content and reruns of what appeared on streaming; there simply will not be a business model to support original entertainment programming on linear TV," Lightshed analyst Rich Greenfield wrote in a research note Friday morning. The thing is, Trump is all over the story. That's because Redstone has already paid a $16 million ransom to Trump, in order to settle a seemingly spurious lawsuit he filed about a "60 Minutes" interview with Kamala Harris last fall. And the Ellisons, who plan to buy Paramount if the Trump-controlled Federal Communications Commission signs off on the deal this fall, are already deeply enmeshed with Trump. Larry Ellison, who Forbes says is now the second-richest man in the world, is a longtime Trump donor whose Oracle software company is doing lots of Trump-blessed business these days. His son David, who will run Paramount, has been actively seeking Trump's blessing — which is presumably why he was spotted hanging out with Trump ringside at two UFC matches this spring. So is there a world where Redstone agreed to move out Colbert as a way to placate Trump — or to do so on behalf of the Ellisons, for the same reasons? So far, there's zero reporting out there making that case. But plenty of people immediately wondered out loud if it was so, including Senators Elizabeth Warren and Adam Schiff, who both put out statements Thursday night wondering if Colbert's show was killed for "political reasons." (Paramount declined to comment beyond its initial press release. A rep for Skydance, the Ellison-owned company that will control Paramount if the sale goes through, also declined to comment. Trump, meanwhile, applauded Colbert's cancellation: "I absolutely love that Colbert' got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings. hear Jimmy Kimmel is next," he posted.) But if you're looking for more evidence that Trump expects America's media companies to do what he wants, you didn't have to look very hard on Thursday. After The Wall Street Journal published a story about a racy poem and drawing Trump allegedly gave to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, Trump announced that he had told both Emma Tucker, the Journal's editor, and Rupert Murdoch, who owns the paper via his News Corp., not to publish the report. Because they did, Trump said Thursday night via his Truth Social platform, he would sue Murdoch and his publications. "I look forward to getting Rupert Murdoch to testify in my lawsuit against him and his "pile of garbage" newspaper, the WSJ.," Trump added in a follow-up post Friday morning. Will Trump actually do that? On the one hand, Trump is well-known for threatening media companies with lawsuits, and throughout his career has sometimes followed up. He's never actually filed a suit while he was president, however. And up until last year, he didn't have much luck with the suits he did file. That changed last fall, after Trump's reelection. Since then, we've seen a series of media and tech companies settle Trump's suits with multimillion-dollar payouts — settlements most legal experts say those companies would never have offered if he didn't have the power of the presidency behind him. Which in my mind gives his current threat much more currency — even though it would end up pitting Trump against the man who also owns and controls Fox News, an outlet Trump watches constantly, and uses to staff his administration. There's no point in speculating what would happen if Trump does follow through with his suit (the White House press office, asked for comment, referred me to Trump's Truth Social posts). But we don't have to speculate about Trump's presence in media boardrooms and everywhere else — he's in everyone's heads, whether they like it or not.
New York Post
17-06-2025
- Politics
- New York Post
Inside the White House ‘battle lines' over immigration raids, and which illegal migrants ICE should target
A tense tug-of-war has erupted in the White House over illegal immigration enforcement as the Trump administration whipsaws between targeting exclusively hardened criminals and going after low-hanging fruit like farm workers to meet arrest quotas. 'Battle lines' have been drawn between Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins over the issue, a source close to the White House told The Post. Miller, an avowed immigration hawk, along with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, uncorked on Immigration and Customs Enforcement leadership last month, demanding agents triple the number of daily migrant arrests being made to 3,000, according to reports. 3 White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller has pushed for a sharp increase in the number of daily ICE arrests. AFP via Getty Images Advertisement This promptly led to a 'leadership alignment' at ICE involving more than half a dozen personnel changes, a shake-up the agency said would help it 'achieve President Trump and the American people's mandate of arresting and deporting criminal illegal aliens and making American communities safe.' As the agency clamored to meet the new Trump-blessed edict, ICE agents began casting a wider net in their raids, rounding up meat processing plant workers, farmhands and day laborers at Home Depot, instead of strictly detaining those with criminal records or active deportation orders. Days later, ICE raided a meat processing plant in Omaha, Neb., and detained workers at a California blueberry field, according to the Los Angeles Times. Advertisement Last week, Rollins warned Trump that US farmers were concerned that the spike in arrests was harming their business. 'Severe disruptions to our food supply would harm Americans,' wrote Rollins on X Sunday. 'It took us decades to get into this mess and we are prioritizing deportations in a way that will get us out.' That same day, the hotel magnate president took to Truth Social to acknowledge that the crackdown was negatively impacting American industries, including hospitality and agriculture. 3 Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins warned against excessive targeting of farm workers by immigration authorities, saying 'severe disruptions to our food supply would harm Americans.' Getty Images Advertisement 'Our great Farmers and people in the Hotel and Leisure business have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace,' he wrote, adding that, 'Changes are coming.' The 'unmaintainable' marching orders also stretched federal immigration officers thin as they grappled to achieve the new sky-high arrest figures, dampening the spirits of agents, according to ICE insiders. 'All that matters is numbers, pure numbers. Quantity over quality,' one source The Post. 'It's killing morale,' they added. Advertisement White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson on Tuesday emphasized the 'critical' need for ICE to receive more funding from Congress through 'Trump's One, Big, Beautiful Bill' to continue the mass deportation raids. The bill would fund 'at least' one million deportations, 10,000 new ICE officers and 3,000 border agents, she said. It would also give immigration agents 'bonuses,' which Jackson said 'they've more than earned.' The enforcement shift Trump outlined came swiftly, with the administration ordering immigration agents to stop busting farm, restaurant and hotel workers — which have higher proportions of illegal migrants in their workforce — just two days later. 3 ICE agents have been pushed to the brink by the new mandates, which see them going after low-hanging fruit like agricultural workers rather than wanted criminals or those under deportation orders, sources tell The Post. James Keivom 'Effective today, please hold on all work site enforcement investigations/operations on agriculture (including aquaculture and meat packing plants), restaurants and operating hotels,' senior ICE official Tatum King wrote in an agency-wide email, the New York Times reported. But the back-and-forth wasn't over yet. Just a day later, Trump was back on Truth Social, emphatically restating his intention to initiate 'the largest mass deportation program in history,' and heralding a broadening of ICE's mandates in migrant-laden US cities including New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. The abrupt about-face was buttressed by Homeland Security, which ordered ICE leadership to continue raiding the very same businesses Trump was defending just 24 hours earlier. Advertisement 'Worksite enforcement remains a cornerstone of our efforts to safeguard public safety, national security and economic stability,' DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement, adding, 'These operations target illegal employment networks that undermine American workers, destabilize labor markets and expose critical infrastructure to exploitation.' Echoing Trump's mass deportation push, Jackson at the White House said 'anyone' who is in the US illegally is at risk of deportation. 'President Trump is working hand-in-glove with DHS and ICE agents to deliver on his campaign promise to remove criminal illegal aliens from the country while executing the largest mass deportation program in history,' she added.
Business Insider
27-05-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
What did tech CEOs get for pivoting toward Trump?
Remember when all those tech CEOs lined up to give Donald Trump money and take photos with him? They're not getting much for their efforts: Trump has frequently snubbed tech, or worse, since taking office. That's a fairly standard take this spring, and we have been seeing a new round of it in the past few days, prompted by recent assessments of tech moguls and their relationships with Trump. The New York Times points out that Apple's Tim Cook, who figured out how to manage Trump during his first administration, is now facing serious tariff trouble. And Bloomberg Businessweek reports that despite Mark Zuckerberg's ostentatiously pro-Trump pivot, Trumpworld remains suspicious of all things Meta — and notes that the federal government is still trying to break the company up. All of which is true. It's just that, as with many things Trump, you can't consistently sum up his attitude toward tech. Sometimes he's beating up the industry — and sometimes he's sticking up for it. And sometimes he changes his mind. It's been a consistent contradiction. For instance: The Trump administration has repeatedly yelled at Europe about fines and other punishments levied against US tech giants — something that's been a big focus for Zuckerberg and his peers. And while Trump has once again been saying Apple will face tariffs unless it makes its iPhones in the US — despite overwhelming skepticism that this is plausible — that doesn't mean he'll keep saying it in the future. In April, for instance, Trump's administration removed impending tech tariffs on Apple — and then insisted they could return, all in one weekend. The Times also says that Trump's recent vow to levy 25% tariffs on Apple comes after he brought up that Tim Cook didn't join him on his recent tour of the Middle East. On the one hand, that's a bummer for Cook, who now has to clear his calendar for Trump's next junket. On the other hand: Cook visits China all the time because he has to keep China happy. So he can spend a little more face time with Trump, too. Then yet again: Face time alone doesn't get you everything you want, all the time. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang did go with Trump on his Middle East trip, and Trump praised him for his presence. Not coincidentally: Nvidia is a partner in Trump-blessed plans for massive data centers in the Middle East. But in April, Trump banned Nvidia from selling its most advanced chips to China — a move Nvidia says cost it $5.5 billion. something for all the time and money they're investing in Trump. Just not everything.
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
What did tech CEOs get for pivoting toward Trump?
Tech CEOs pivoted hard, and publicly, toward Donald Trump this year. Sometimes, it looks like they're not getting anything for their time and money. But it's more accurate to say Trump is helping them on some things — and fighting them on others. Remember when all those tech CEOs lined up to give Donald Trump money and take photos with him? They're not getting much for their efforts: Trump has frequently snubbed tech, or worse, since taking office. That's a fairly standard take this spring, and we have been seeing a new round of it in the past few days, prompted by recent assessments of tech moguls and their relationships with Trump. The New York Times points out that Apple's Tim Cook, who figured out how to manage Trump during his first administration, is now facing serious tariff trouble. And Bloomberg Businessweek reports that despite Mark Zuckerberg's ostentatiously pro-Trump pivot, Trumpworld remains suspicious of all things Meta — and notes that the federal government is still trying to break the company up. All of which is true. It's just that, as with many things Trump, you can't consistently sum up his attitude toward tech. Sometimes he's beating up the industry — and sometimes he's sticking up for it. And sometimes he changes his mind. It's been a consistent contradiction. For instance: The Trump administration has repeatedly yelled at Europe about fines and other punishments levied against US tech giants — something that's been a big focus for Zuckerberg and his peers. And while Trump has once again been saying Apple will face tariffs unless it makes its iPhones in the US — despite overwhelming skepticism that this is plausible — that doesn't mean he'll keep saying it in the future. In April, for instance, Trump's administration removed impending tech tariffs on Apple — and then insisted they could return, all in one weekend. The Times also suggests that Trump's recent vow to levy 25% tariffs on Apple comes after Trump complained that Tim Cook didn't join him on his recent tour of the Middle East. On the one hand, that's a bummer for Cook, who now has to clear his calendar for Trump's next junket. On the other hand: Tim Cook visits China all the time because he has to keep China happy. So he can spend a little more face time with Trump, too. Then yet again: Face time alone doesn't get you everything you want, all the time. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang did come with Trump on his Middle East trip, and Trump praised him for his presence. Not coincidentally: Nvidia is a partner in Trump-blessed plans for massive data centers in the Middle East. But in April, Trump banned Nvidia from selling its most advanced chips to China — a move Nvidia says cost it $5.5 billion. So maybe it's more accurate to say tech CEOS are getting something for all the time and money they're investing in Trump. Just not everything. Read the original article on Business Insider Sign in to access your portfolio
Business Insider
27-05-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
Tech CEOs aren't getting everything they want from Trump. They're getting some of what they want.
Remember when all of those tech CEOs lined up to give Donald Trump money and take photos with him? They're not getting much for their efforts: Trump has frequently snubbed tech, or worse, since taking office. That's a fairly standard take this spring, and we have been seeing a new round of it in the last few days, prompted by recent assessments of tech moguls and their relationships with Trump. The New York Times points out that Apple's Tim Cook, who figured out how to manage Trump during his first administration, is now facing serious tariff trouble. And Bloomberg Businessweek reports that despite Mark Zuckerberg's ostentatiously pro-Trump pivot, Trumpworld remains suspicious of all things Meta — and notes that the federal government is still trying to break the company up. All of which is true. It's just that, as with many things Trump, you can't consistently sum up his attitude toward tech. Sometimes he's beating up the industry — and sometimes he's sticking up for it. And sometimes he changes his mind. It's been a consistent contradiction. For instance: The Trump administration has repeatedly yelled at Europe about fines and other punishments levied against US tech giants — something that's been a big focus for Zuckerberg and his peers. And while Trump has once again been insisting that Apple will face tariffs unless it makes its iPhones in the US — despite overwhelming skepticism that this is plausible — that doesn't mean that he'll keep saying it in the future. In April, for instance, Trump's administration removed impending tech tariffs on Apple — and then insisted they could return, all in one weekend. The Times also suggests that Trump's recent vow to levy 25% tariffs on Apple comes after Trump complained that Tim Cook didn't join him on his recent tour of the Middle East. On the one hand, that's a bummer for Cook, who now has to clear his calendar for Trump's next junket. On the other hand: Tim Cook visits China all the time because he has to keep China happy. So he can spend a little more face time with Trump, too. Then yet again: Face time alone doesn't get you everything you want, all the time. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang did come with Trump on his Middle East trip, and Trump praised him for his presence. Not coincidentally: Nvidia is a partner in Trump-blessed plans for massive data centers in the Middle East. But in April, Trump banned Nvidia from selling its most advanced chips to China — a move Nvidia says cost it $5.5 billion. something for all the time and money they're investing in Trump. Just not everything.
