David Ellison dinner in honor of Trump, attended by Bari Weiss and Norah O’Donnell

President Donald Trump delivered remarks for “almost an hour” at the dinner hosted by David Ellison in Washington DC on Thursday evening in honor of Trump, according to the New York Times.

Ellison organized the event to honor Trump (and also to recognize CBS News’ White House reporters) as his Paramount Skydance seeks approval from the Trump administration’s Justice Department for its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery worth $111 billion. On Wednesday, WBD shareholders overwhelmingly approved the company’s sale to Paramount.

In addition to senior members of the Trump administration, attendees included Bari Weiss, editor-in-chief of CBS News; former CBS Evening News anchor Norah O’Donnell; Tom Cibrowski, CBS News president; Jan Crawford, the network’s chief legal correspondent; Chief White House Correspondent Nancy Cordes; and Weijia Jiang, White House correspondent for CBS News and president of the White House Correspondents’ Association.

Weiss “joined Ellison at Mr. Trump’s table,” along with her wife, Nellie Bowles; First Lady Melania Trump; and Paramount Chief Legal Officer Makan Delrahim (who was a DOJ antitrust official during Trump’s first term), the Times report said.

Ellison’s dinner guests also included Todd Blanche, who took on the role of acting US attorney general after Trump fired Pam Bondi earlier this month. As noted by the Times: “Mr. Blanche oversees the Justice Department, whose antitrust division will review the Warner Bros. acquisition.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller were also present at the meeting, according to the report.

What Trump said during his nearly hour-long speech was not detailed in the Times report.

Senator Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut) said the following about Ellison’s event honoring Trump: “Ellison and the information oligarchs should enjoy it while they can, because when the Democrats get into power, we will tear these anti-consumer, anti-free speech media conglomerates to pieces,” he posted on X.

CBS News employees “described consternation within the CBS newsroom over the event’s potential to create a perception of conviviality between the news department and the Trump administration,” according to the Times article.

A spokeswoman for Paramount Skydance declined to comment. The White House and CBS News did not respond to requests for comment Friday.

The event took place two days before the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Saturday, April 25 – which Trump is also expected to attend. The April 23 dinner hosted by Ellison, which started with cocktails at 6:15 p.m., took place at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington. In December, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that it was renamed “The Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace.”

After Paramount Skydance defeated Netflix by Warner Bros. to buy, CNN employees privately expressed fears that the Trump-friendly ownership of Paramount would push CNN’s reporting in a more conservative ideological direction. Weiss, whose digital news outlet The Free Press was acquired by Paramount last fall, has caused disruption within the ranks of CBS News. Ellison has promised that CNN’s “editorial independence will be absolutely preserved.”