Donald Trump said that the Ellison-owned Paramount is “no better than the old ownership,” as he lashed out at the company over a 60 Minutes interview with new nemesis Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA).
Trump’s comments came just after Paramount launched a hostile bid for Warner Bros. Discovery. On Friday, Netflix was announced as the winning bidder for WBD’s studio assets and HBO and HBO Max, with the cable networks spun off into a separate entity.
Trump posted on Truth Social, “The only reason Marjorie ‘Traitor’ Brown (Green turns Brown under stress!) went BAD is that she was JILTED by the President of the United States (Certainly not the first time she has been jilted!). Too much work, not enough time, and her ideas are, NOW, really BAD – She sort of reminds me of a Rotten Apple! Marjorie is not AMERICA FIRST or MAGA, because nobody could have changed her views so fast, and her new views are those of a very dumb person.
Trump added, “That was proven last night when washed up, Trump hating, 60 Minutes “correspondent,” Lesley Stahl, who still owes me an apology from when she attacked me on the show (with serious conviction!), that Hunter Biden’s LAPTOP FROM HELL was produced by Russia, not Hunter himself (TOTALLY PROVEN WRONG!), interviewed a very poorly prepared Traitor, who in her confusion made many really stupid statements. My real problem with the show, however, wasn’t the low IQ traitor, it was that the new ownership of 60 Minutes, Paramount, would allow a show like this to air. THEY ARE NO BETTER THAN THE OLD OWNERSHIP, who just paid me millions of Dollars for FAKE REPORTING about your favorite President, ME! Since they bought it, 60 Minutes has actually gotten WORSE! Oh well, far worse things can happen. P.S. I hereby demand a complete and total APOLOGY, though far too late to be meaningful, from Lesley Stahl and 60 Minutes for her incorrect and Libelous statements about Hunter’s Laptop!!! President DJT”
The leadership of Paramount and Netflix have been trying to win the president’s support for their respective plans for Warner Bros. On Sunday, at the Kennedy Center Honors, Trump told Deadline that a Netflix takeover of Warner Bros. “could be a problem” given the streamer’s market share, although the president was effusive in his praise for co-CEO Ted Sarandos. Trump said that he met with Sarandos last week.
The Netflix agreement to acquire Warner Bros. does not include CNN, long one of Trump’s targets, while Paramount’s bid does. The previous Paramount regime paid $16 million to settle a Trump lawsuit against CBS, over the way that 60 Minutes edited an interview with Kamala Harris. That settlement came as Skydance and Paramount were seeking regulatory approval to close their merger transaction.
Since then, Trump has praised Paramount CEO David Ellison, whose father, Larry, is a longtime ally. Trump did sit down for an interview with 60 Minutes, with Norah O’Donnell questioning him during a 90-minute session.
It was edited for a 60 Minutes segment, but the show released a transcript. The show has continued to do hard-hitting segments on the administration, and the Greene interview was with a figure who has emerged as one of the president’s most vocal critics from the right. She helped lead a congressional effort last month to release the files of Jeffrey Epstein, and she has spoken out about the lack of GOP response to the pending rise in Affordable Care Act premiums. Greene announced recently that she would leave Congress early next year, citing the possibility that Trump would enlist a primary challenger against her.
Spokespersons for Paramount and CBS did not immediately return requests for comment.
