Trump's '60 Minutes' Fixation Targets MAGA-Aligned CBS Executives

Donald Trump has been vocal about his frustrations with the CBS news program 60 Minutes, claiming that it has treated him unfairly and is particularly harsh under the new ownership of Paramount. This dissatisfaction has led to a series of public outbursts against the parent company of CBS News, which is currently in the process of acquiring Warner Bros. Discovery.

Trump's criticism of 60 Minutes comes at a time when the president is also dealing with the complexities of the takeover bid by Paramount. The company, led by David Ellison and his father Larry Ellison, has been making efforts to gain Trump's favor in order to secure his support for the acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery.

In a recent post on Truth Social, Trump expressed his frustration, stating that 60 Minutes has treated him worse since the so-called "takeover" than it ever has before. He went on to say that if the new owners are friends, he would hate to see what his enemies are like.

This tension was heightened after an interview with Marjorie Taylor Greene, a former ally turned critic, aired on 60 Minutes. Trump criticized the interview, suggesting that the new ownership of CBS, specifically David Ellison, was not as favorable as he had previously thought.

The Ellisons have long maintained close ties with Trump, and they have been banking on these relationships to help them in their aggressive attempt to acquire Warner Bros. Despite Trump's public support for Paramount in the bidding war for Warner Bros., it seems he wants to remind the Ellisons who is in charge.

On the same day that the hostile takeover bid was submitted, Trump expressed his anger over the Greene interview, attacking both Greene and the correspondent, Lesley Stahl. He also made references to a previous lawsuit where the prior leadership of Paramount paid him $16 million to settle a case related to a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris.

Trump continued to express his displeasure with the new ownership of 60 Minutes, claiming that they were no better than the old owners who had paid him for fake reporting about him. He stated that since the new ownership took over, 60 Minutes has actually gotten worse.

Later that afternoon, Trump suggested to White House reporters that he was no longer on friendly terms with the Ellisons. He mentioned the need to evaluate the market share of both Netflix and Paramount before making a decision on the WBD deal.

Despite this, Trump later indicated that he favored Paramount's bid for Warner Bros., stating that it was imperative that CNN be sold as part of any deal. While the Netflix merger would involve spinning off CNN, Paramount is proposing to buy all of Warner’s assets.

In addition to this, Ellison has claimed to have had "great conversations" with Trump regarding his plan to combine CNN, which Trump has long criticized as "fake news," with CBS News. According to reports, Ellison has assured Trump administration officials that he would make sweeping changes to CNN if he acquired Warner Bros.

The Ellisons have also brought on Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, as an investor in the Warner Bros. bid. Trump has expressed his concerns about the current management of CNN, calling them a "very dishonest group of people."

To address the controversy surrounding the 60 Minutes interview, the Ellisons have been working on damage control with the White House. According to reports, David Ellison and Jeff Shell, the president of Paramount Skydance, were unaware of the broadcast until the day it aired.

It seems that the Ellisons will need to continue their efforts to appease Trump, given the recent outburst on Truth Social.