President Donald Trump renewed criticism against CBS News’s 60 Minutes while criticizing Paramount Skydance on Monday, a possible bad omen in the company’s bid to purchase Warner Bros. Discovery.
60 Minutes conducted a sit-down interview with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) on Sunday, a month after she and the president publicly broke their alliance. Trump said the Georgia lawmaker reminds him of a “rotten apple,” and she made “really stupid statements” when speaking to “Trump hating” anchor Lesley Stahl on the show.
“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,” Trump said on Truth Social.
Trump received $16 million from Paramount Global in July as a settlement for his lawsuit over edits made in a 2024 60 Minutes interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris. Since then, Skydance has merged with Paramount Global to become Paramount Skydance.
The president concluded his statement against 60 Minutes by demanding an apology from Stahl and the program “for her incorrect and Libelous statements” on the Hunter Biden laptop saga. Stahl interviewed Trump in October 2020, during which she asserted that claims of Biden and his father, then-presidential candidate Joe Biden, engaging in corrupt behavior were “discredited.”
Trump’s knock against Paramount comes as the media company is making a new effort to buy Warner Bros., offering a $108.4 billion takeover bid. Netflix announced Friday that it is buying Warner Bros. for around $82.7 billion, which Paramount argued is “inferior” to its offer.
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Trump voiced skepticism over Netflix’s deal on Monday, saying the streaming giant is “a great company,” but its bid to purchase Warner Bros. will need to go through “a process.” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) described the deal as “an anti-monopoly nightmare” on X, and Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) said “a lot of antitrust red flags” are present with the deal, encouraging followers on X to “stay tuned” for a potential hearing.
Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison said Monday that he thinks Trump “believes in competition,” and that allowing Netflix, “the No. 1 streamer,” to combine with the third most popular streaming service is “anti-competitive.” Ellison also said he is “trying to save” Hollywood’s theatrical movie business on CNBC’s Squawk on the Street.
