Donald Trump Pays Tribute To Ted Turner While Lamenting “Woke” CNN

Donald Trump paid tribute to media titan Ted Turner, who died on Wednesday at age 87, while bashing the network he created, CNN.

In a Truth Social post, Trump wrote, “Ted Turner, one of the Greats of All Time, just died. He founded CNN, sold it, and was personally devastated by the Deal because the new ownership took CNN, his ‘baby,’ and destroyed it. It became woke, and everything that he is not all about. Maybe the new buyers, wonderful people, will be able to bring it back to its former credibility and glory. Regardless, however, one of the Greats of Broadcast History, and a friend of mine. Whenever I needed him, he was there, always willing to fight for a good cause! President DONALD J. TRUMP”

Trump’s reference to “new buyers” is to Paramount’s proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, CNN’s parent.

Turner sold CNN’s parent, Turner Broadcasting, to Time Warner, in 1995. He stepped down as vice chairman of Time Warner in 2003, amid the company’s ill-fated merger with AOL, and as a director in 2006.

Turner, who had a history of giving to candidates of both parties, endorsed Hillary Clinton over Trump in the 2016 presidential race, writing that she was “on the front line fighting for what is right.”