David Ellison to Host Private Dinner ‘Honoring’ Donald Trump as Paramount Awaits Closing of Warner Bros. Deal
David Ellison, whose Paramount Skydance is awaiting closure of its massive deal to swallow up Warner Bros. Discovery, will host an invitation-only dinner next week “honoring” President Donald Trump and CBS News’ White House correspondents, Variety has confirmed.
The event will take place in Washington, D.C., on April 23, two days before the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Saturday, April 25. The Ellison-hosted function will be held at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington, which the State Department in December 2025 announced was being renamed “The Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace.”
Media-industry newsletter Breaker first reported news of the Ellison dinner. A spokesperson for Paramount Skydance declined to comment.
According to an earlier report by Breaker, CBS News invited Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller as its guests to the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. Trump has said he will attend the event for the first time as president; the festivities are to be hosted by magician, author and “mentalist” Oz Pearlman.
Separately, Paramount said that Ellison will be unable to attend a Senate “spotlight” hearing Wednesday (April 15) about the Paramount-WBD merger called by Sen. Cory Booker (D-New Jersey), because Ellison is attending the funeral of a deceased family member.
With Paramount Skydance poised to acquire CNN’s parent company, staffers at the news cable outlet have privately expressed fears that the Trump-friendly ownership of Paramount Skydance will steer CNN’s coverage toward a more conservative ideological bent. Ellison last fall installed Free Press founder Bari Weiss, who has criticized “woke” news coverage from many mainstream outlets, as head of CBS News, resulting in disruption within the ranks of the TV news division.
Ellison told CNBC last month that CNN’s “editorial independence will absolutely be maintained. It’s maintained at CBS. It’ll be maintained at CNN. And, really, who we want to talk to is the 70% of Americans and really around the world that identify as center-left, as center-right. And we want to be in the truth business. We want to be in the trust business. And that’s not going to change.”
Paramount’s deal to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, which has a $111 billion enterprise value, is pending regulatory clearance and WBD shareholder approval at an April 23 special meeting. The companies have said they expect the deal to close by the end of the third quarter of 2026.
Last month, the acting head of the Justice Department’s antitrust division, Omeed Assefi, said the Paramount-WBD deal will “absolutely not” be on a fast-track for approval due to political reasons, in the context of the Ellison family’s friendly ties to Trump.
According to Booker, Ellison has not responded to a list of questions that he and seven other Democratic senators posed to the CEO, including whether Ellison had ever donated money to Trump directly or indirectly and whether there were any communications regarding a personal benefit to Trump with a potential Paramount-WBD merger.
The event will take place in Washington, D.C., on April 23, two days before the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Saturday, April 25. The Ellison-hosted function will be held at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington, which the State Department in December 2025 announced was being renamed “The Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace.”
Media-industry newsletter Breaker first reported news of the Ellison dinner. A spokesperson for Paramount Skydance declined to comment.
According to an earlier report by Breaker, CBS News invited Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller as its guests to the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. Trump has said he will attend the event for the first time as president; the festivities are to be hosted by magician, author and “mentalist” Oz Pearlman.
Separately, Paramount said that Ellison will be unable to attend a Senate “spotlight” hearing Wednesday (April 15) about the Paramount-WBD merger called by Sen. Cory Booker (D-New Jersey), because Ellison is attending the funeral of a deceased family member.
With Paramount Skydance poised to acquire CNN’s parent company, staffers at the news cable outlet have privately expressed fears that the Trump-friendly ownership of Paramount Skydance will steer CNN’s coverage toward a more conservative ideological bent. Ellison last fall installed Free Press founder Bari Weiss, who has criticized “woke” news coverage from many mainstream outlets, as head of CBS News, resulting in disruption within the ranks of the TV news division.
Ellison told CNBC last month that CNN’s “editorial independence will absolutely be maintained. It’s maintained at CBS. It’ll be maintained at CNN. And, really, who we want to talk to is the 70% of Americans and really around the world that identify as center-left, as center-right. And we want to be in the truth business. We want to be in the trust business. And that’s not going to change.”
Paramount’s deal to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, which has a $111 billion enterprise value, is pending regulatory clearance and WBD shareholder approval at an April 23 special meeting. The companies have said they expect the deal to close by the end of the third quarter of 2026.
Last month, the acting head of the Justice Department’s antitrust division, Omeed Assefi, said the Paramount-WBD deal will “absolutely not” be on a fast-track for approval due to political reasons, in the context of the Ellison family’s friendly ties to Trump.
According to Booker, Ellison has not responded to a list of questions that he and seven other Democratic senators posed to the CEO, including whether Ellison had ever donated money to Trump directly or indirectly and whether there were any communications regarding a personal benefit to Trump with a potential Paramount-WBD merger.