CNN contributor vows to leave rather than stay with MAGA owners

All through 2026, President Donald Trump's billionaire ally David Ellison has tried to purchase Warner Bros. in part — according to many reports — so he can fire CNN journalists who criticize him and replace them with more pro-Trump alternatives. He even had private meetings with both Ellison and their competitor to purchase Warner Bros, Netflix, before the former seemed to indicate his pro-Trump agenda and the latter dropped their bid.

Now that California Attorney General Rob Bonta has dropped his antitrust lawsuit and capitulated to Ellison, it seems the Trumpification of CNN — analogous to how Ellison turned CBS News into a pro-Trump outlet — is inevitable. And at least one top CNN personality has made it clear she will not stick around to work in that environment.

"So it’s only a few months, right?" CNN journalist Kara Swisher told podcaster Scott Galloway on Tuesday. "I’m just, I just can’t. I just, I thought like I was trying to figure out ways I could work with them in some like licensing way."

Swisher then added that she ultimately decided staying at CNN would simply not be worth it, saying "I got too much to do with you, Scott Galloway."

Galloway pointed out that Ellison will likely be happy to be rid of Swisher, speculating that their attitude will be that "when you show up to whoever it is you show up to at CNN and say, I want out of my contract, they jump up and say, ‘Congratulations, no problem.’"

Swisher agreed, but concluded: “No, I’m just saying. I just don’t want to work. They don’t want me. I don’t want them, and I have been very explicit."

She also told Galloway, “I think they are terrible media owners. I’d rather work for Rupert Murdoch."

Despite occasionally denying his involvement in helping the Ellisons take over CNN so he can benefit, Trump admitted in July that "we're trying to have CNN go on a normal path." Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has also said that he looks forward to CNN being purchased by the Ellisons so they can get more favorable coverage.

Writing for The Washington Post in March, journalist Scott Nover further elaborated on the Ellisons and how they play into the president's plans to silence his main critics.

"CNN, a longtime target of Trump's complaints about the media, is among the most prominent assets in Paramount's pending acquisition of Warner Bros., which requires approval from the Justice Department," Nover wrote. "Larry Ellison, co-founder and chairman of Oracle and a longtime friend and ally to Trump, has financially backstopped Paramount's pending deal to buy Warner Bros. and is also a major investor in the White House-blessed deal that spun off TikTok into a U.S. company. That has helped rebrand the tech billionaire and his son David into media tycoons — with some help from Trump."

Nover continued, "The (Trump) administration's posture toward Paramount's proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery has drawn scrutiny since a bidding war erupted over the troubled media giant late last year."