Dozens of protesters, including members of Congress, gathered along the National Mall on Thursday to protest a dinner hosted by Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison in honour of Donald Trump and the White House correspondents. The event, described as 'intimate', was seen by critics as a display of the close ties between the Ellisons and the Trump administration, which is currently weighing approval of Paramount's $110bn merger with WarnerBros Discovery.
Democratic Representative Jamie Raskin called the dinner 'a lavish oligarch's dinner for Donald Trump', accusing Ellison of using the event to cement his relationship with the president amid a 'corrupt merger scheme'. Representative Becca Balint, a member of the House antitrust subcommittee, said that while protesters demanded accountability, those inside were 'celebrating power and corruption'.
The merger, which would bring numerous television networks under Ellison's control, was approved 'overwhelmingly' by WarnerBros Discovery shareholders earlier Thursday. However, it still requires clearance from the US Department of Justice and European regulators. Antitrust experts view a potential lawsuit from state attorneys general as the most likely obstacle to the deal.
Norm Eisen of Democracy Defenders Action likened the dinner to 'a celebration of the first amendment the same way a book burning is a celebration of the written word', arguing that the true celebration of free speech was the protest itself. The dinner precedes Saturday's White House correspondents' dinner, which Trump will attend, with Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth expected at a CBS News table.
