CNN and other outlets were denied entry to the White House state dinner for China’s president Xi Jinping, cutting the network off from on-the-ground coverage, while David Ellison, who is described as CNN’s soon-to-be owner, joined President Donald Trump and Xi at the same event.
Ellison attended the three-course dinner as he presses a federal judge to approve a settlement tied to Paramount’s $111 billion proposed merger with Warner Bros Discovery. The CEO’s presence at the table underlines his closer ties to the Trump administration, a shift from his past donations to Democrats that opponents of the ParaBros deal have flagged as worrisome for outlets including the Bari Weiss-run CBS News and CNN.
The guest list read like a who’s who of the tech and corporate elite. Elon Musk, OpenAI chief Sam Altman, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Google co-founder Sergey Brin, TikTok’s Jeff Yass, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang and Microsoft’s Satya Nadella were all included, alongside former Apple CEO Tim Cook and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Traditional corporate leaders such as Boeing’s Kelly Ortberg, JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon and Dell’s Michael Dell also attended, as did a slate of conservative television hosts.
The administration has been in a legal tussle with news organisations. CNN, MSNBC and Politico were among the outlets banned from the White House last week; they sued, and Judge Timothy Kelly ordered them to be re-credentialed. That reprieve lasted only part of the day, and the networks were again excluded for the dinner.
The juxtaposition of a network blocked from a presidential event and its prospective owner dining beside the president adds a political dimension to the pending court and merger matters. With Trump’s new online channel launched and the ParaBros settlement awaiting judicial approval, Ellison’s White House access is likely to be pointed to by critics as evidence of the political stakes surrounding the media consolidation under review.
