President Donald Trump has paid tribute to media pioneer Ted Turner following his death at age 87, while simultaneously launching an attack on CNN, the Cable News Network Turner founded.
Donald Trump pays tribute to Ted Turner
In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump described Turner as “one of the Greats of All Time” and “one of the Greats of Broadcast History.” He framed the tribute around Turner’s relationship with CNN, the groundbreaking 24-hour news channel launched in 1980 that reshaped global journalism.
Trump wrote that Turner was “personally devastated” after selling the network, claiming new ownership “took CNN, his ‘baby,’ and destroyed it.” Without providing specific evidence for Turner’s private feelings, Trump asserted the network’s direction had diverged entirely from its founder’s vision. “It became woke, and everything that he is not all about,” Trump wrote.
The president then referenced Paramount’s proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, CNN’s current parent company, expressing cautious optimism about the network’s trajectory. “Maybe the new buyers, wonderful people, will be able to bring it back to its former credibility and glory,” he said. Donald Trump’s characterization of his personal relationship with Ted Turner was warm. “Whenever I needed him, he was there, always willing to fight for a good cause,” he wrote, describing Turner as “a friend of mine.”
The media pioneer sold Turner Broadcasting to Time Warner in 1995. He later stepped down as vice chairman of the merged company in 2003 following the widely criticized AOL-Time Warner merger, and departed the board entirely in 2006. While Turner did voice criticisms of the media industry after selling his company, his documented concerns centered primarily on corporate consolidation rather than editorial direction.
Turner, who donated to candidates from both parties during his career, endorsed Hillary Clinton over Trump in the 2016 presidential election. At the time, Turner wrote that Clinton was “on the front line fighting for what is right.”
Originally reported by Devanshi Basu on Mandatory
