US president also says Paramount Skydance chief David Ellison, whom he called \u2018amazing\u2019, could be \u2018bust\u2019 if he\u2019d lost<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During an interview with CBS Evening News, Donald Trump<\/a> claimed new anchor Tony Dokoupil wouldn\u2019t have his job if his opponent in the 2024 presidential election, Kamala Harris<\/a>, had won.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cA year and a half ago, our country was dead,\u201d he argued. \u201cWe had a dead country. You wouldn\u2019t have a job right now. If she got in, you probably wouldn\u2019t have a job right now\u2026 You wouldn\u2019t have this job, certainly whatever the hell they\u2019re paying you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n CBS is now controlled by the family of Larry Ellison, a friend of the president, and one of the world\u2019s richest people, following the takeover of Paramount Global<\/a>, its parent company, last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n David Ellison, son of Larry, and chief executive of CBS owner Paramount Skydance, swiftly recruited the heterodox writer Bari Weiss to shake up CBS News<\/a>. In one of her first big moves as editor-in-chief, Weiss tapped<\/a> the 45-year-old Dokoupil to anchor the Evening News, transforming him into one of the faces of the network<\/a>. His success \u2013 or failure \u2013 as anchor of the third-place show will impact how Weiss\u2019s tenure is ultimately viewed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dokoupil was scheduled to begin as anchor of the struggling evening news show on 5 January but instead came on air two days earlier after the US incursion into Venezuela<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The US president is a major booking for Dokoupil, who faced scrutiny last week for his handling of interviews with some members of Trump\u2019s administration, including a 4 January interview with the secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth<\/a>, and a 7 January sit-down with border \u201cczar\u201d Tom Homan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump on Tuesday also talked about David Ellison, who is currently trying to expand his media empire via a hostile bid to acquire Warner Bros Discovery<\/a>, the media conglomerate behind CNN, HBO and the storied movie studios.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ellison has a good relationship with the Trump administration<\/a>, and some in the White House have expressed a preference for him and his father to beat out Netflix, which has a deal in place with Warner Bros Discovery<\/a> to buy many of its prized assets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But had Trump lost the election, \u201cyour boss, who is an amazing guy, might be bust\u201d, he told Dokoupil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the end of the interview, which was conducted at a Ford plant in Dearborn, Michigan, Dokoupil gently pushed back Trump\u2019s comments about his employment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFor the record, I do think I\u2019d have this job even if the other guys won,\u201d he said. Trump then retorted: \u201cYeah, but at a lesser salary.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to sources familiar with the broadcast, Trump then called Dokoupil a \u201cwise guy\u201d, though that comment was not aired.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While it\u2019s normal for television news networks to edit down interviews with newsmakers, CBS<\/a> News has faced scrutiny in the past for editing decisions, including the handling of a 60 Minutes interview with then vice-president Harris in October 2024 that led to a major lawsuit from Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n CBS ultimately settled with him<\/a> and agreed to pay $16m, despite many legal experts widely dismissing the lawsuit as \u201cmeritless\u201d and unlikely to hold up under the first amendment, shortly before the Ellisons won regulatory approval for their takeover of its owner Paramount.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The network also edited down<\/a> a 60 Minutes interview of Trump by correspondent Norah O\u2019Donnell conducted in November, though she got far more time with Trump than Dokoupil did on Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n