Trump Insists ‘Any Deal’ for Warner Bros. Must Include CNN

President Donald Trump declared that “any deal” for Warner Bros. Discovery should include CNN during a Q&A on Wednesday.

After fielding a question about the new owners of Warner Bros. Discovery — which has accepted an acquisition offer from Netflix but is also facing down an attempted hostile takeover from Paramount Skydance — potentially making changes at CNN, Trump said the following:

Well, I’m not involved in that. I will be probably involved, maybe involved in the decision — it depends. You have some good companies bidding on it. I think the people that have run CNN for the last long period of time are a disgrace. I think it’s imperative that CNN be sold. Because you certainly wouldn’t want to put people-, just leave those people with some money, good money at CNN so that, you know, they could spend even more money spreading poison. Because it’s lies, it’s a disgrace. So I wouldn’t wanna see the same company end up with CNN, the same company with money. Because right now they don’t have too much money. But they have value, I guess, based on the bids — so they’ve got value.

But I think, I think CNN should be sold because I think the people that are running CNN right now are either corrupt or incompetent.

The reporter who raised the subject then asked a follow-up: “That’ll be a factor in the decision-making?”

“Well, it might in my mind, but I’m, you know I could be talked out of that by some very talented people that we have, antitrust people. But I just think that the people that have run CNN into the ground by the way, nobody watches it, very few people watch. I don’t think they should be entrusted with running CNN any longer,” replied Trump. “So I think any deal should-, 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. I think CNN should be sold along with everything else.”

Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison has reportedly told Trump administration officials that he would implement “sweeping changes” at CNN should he succeed in acquiring Warner Bros. Discovery, the cable news network’s parent company.

According to The Wall Street Journal — which reported that “Trump has told people close to him that he wants new ownership of CNN as well as changes to CNN programming” — Ellison has told Trump administration officials that “if he bought Warner, he’d make sweeping changes to CNN.”

Watch above via Fox News.