President Donald Trump raged against ‘corrupt’ CNN on Wednesday, saying he’d like to see the cable news network sold as part of a media megadeal.
He then clashed with the network’s reporter, telling her she worked for the ‘Democrat Party,’ continuing his series of spats with female White House journalists.
Trump was hosting a handful of tech leaders in the Roosevelt Room Wednesday afternoon to talk about some of his Trump-branded products – the Trump Gold Card immigration visas – and Trump savings accounts.
The topic shifted to media deals when Trump was asked about son-in-law Jared Kushner‘s involvement in Paramount’s hostile bid to buy Warner Bros. Discovery, CNN’s parent company. He was also questioned about what changes he’d like to see made to CNN, which he’s long labeled ‘fake news.’
‘Well, I’m not involved in that,’ Trump answered initially. ‘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,’ the president added.
As he continued, he grew more vehement in his belief that CNN needed new ownership.
‘I think CNN should be sold because I think the people that are running CNN right now are either corrupt or incompetent,’ Trump said.
A hostile bid from Paramount–Skydance could place CNN under a company led by David Ellison, a Trump ally who has privately indicated he would shift CNN’s coverage in a more conservative direction, similar to Paramount’s influence on CBS News.
But Trump said he feared that certain deals would lead to CNN being able to ‘spend even more money spreading poison.’
‘Because it’s lies, it’s a disgrace,’ he complained.
Later during the event, Trump made clear he thought CNN was a partisan entity.
‘Has Secretary Hegseth told you why he hasn’t released the video of the second strike?’ asked CNN’s Kristen Holmes.
The White House and the Pentagon have been under fire after the military made a second strike at an alleged Venezuelan drug boat to kill off survivors, a move experts characterized as illegal.
‘No, he hasn’t told me,’ Trump said of Hegseth. ‘I thought that issue was dead.’
The Venezuelan boat strike was a top news story last week, but other stories have since eclipsed it.
‘I’m surprised you’re bringing it up,’ Trump continued. ‘You must be CNN. Are you CNN? Are you CNN?’
Holmes said she was with the network and pointed out that lawmakers are still discussing the boat strike on Capitol Hill.
‘Which lawmakers are you talking about? You mean the people that you work for? The Democrats,’ Trump insisted. ‘You know you work for the Democrats. You’re basically an arm of the Democrat Party.’
With that, he dismissed the reporters from the room.
Trump has had several prickly encounters with female reporters in recent weeks, saying ‘quiet, quiet piggy,’ to a Bloomberg reporter on Air Force One who asked him about Jeffrey Epstein, and calling Politico’s Dasha Burns ‘dramatic’ when she asked about Americans’ economic woes.
