Media's MAGA makeover
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Photo illustration: Lindsey Bailey/Axios. Photos: Chris Unger, Chip Somodevilla, Pool, Andrew Harnik, Bloomberg via Getty Images
Trump-friendly billionaires are consolidating control over American media, steering legacy brands and social platforms in a new conservative direction.
Why it matters: The media landscape of 2016 is unrecognizable. Once dominated by critics of President Trump, today's fragmented ecosystem is increasingly controlled — or threatened — by forces aligned with the White House.
Driving the news: ABC pulled Jimmy Kimmel off air "indefinitely" on Wednesday in response to the late-night host's comments about Charlie Kirk's assassination.
- The extraordinary move came after Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr warned ABC that it could face fines or license revocations if it did not "operate in the public interest."
- Trump celebrated Kimmel's removal — just as he did CBS's decision to cancel Stephen Colbert's show — and called for NBC to take action against remaining late-night hosts Seth Meyers and Jimmy Fallon.
The big picture: The media's MAGA makeover is unfolding on two fronts — high-profile acquisitions that give Trump allies control of marquee platforms, and quieter rebrands that soften once-critical coverage or policies.
1. Acquisitions: No modern media deal has more profoundly reshaped U.S. politics than Elon Musk's 2022 takeover of Twitter (now X), which turned the digital town square into a platform dominated by MAGA voices.
- It soon may be eclipsed by another seismic deal: Oracle, chaired by Trump ally Larry Ellison, is seeking to take control of TikTok's U.S. operations as part of a consortium that includes Silver Lake and Andreessen Horowitz.
- The proposal — if green-lit by China — could give one of Trump's billionaire allies unprecedented sway over a platform central to youth culture and political organizing.
Meanwhile, Skydance's acquisition of Paramount this summer handed Ellison's son, David, control of CBS News, where he appointed a conservative ombudsman to review complaints about the network's coverage.
- Paramount-Skydance is in advanced talks to acquire Bari Weiss' conservative news site, The Free Press, and give her a senior editorial role at CBS.
- The Ellisons are also working on a cash bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, which owns CNN — potentially putting two of America's most iconic TV news brands under the purview of one Trump-aligned family.
2. Rebrands: Major tech and media executives made a series of overtures to Trump in the wake of the 2024 election, promising a more conciliatory approach toward his second administration.
- Meta's Mark Zuckerberg pivoted hard after years of tensions — appointing Trump allies to top jobs and eliminating the platform's fact-checking program as part of a slate of changes targeting "censorship."
- Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos killed the paper's endorsement of then-Vice President Harris and announced in February that its opinion page would shift its mission to promote "personal liberties and free markets."
- L.A. Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong spiked his paper's Harris endorsement and vowed on Fox News to balance out his editorial board with conservative voices.
The intrigue: Univision, the largest Spanish-language broadcaster in the U.S. and onetime left-leaning voice for Latinos, has ingratiated itself with the Trump administration under its new owner, Mexican media giant Televisa.
- The Baltimore Sun, Maryland's largest newspaper, has shifted notably to the right since being sold to David Smith, the executive chairman of conservative local broadcaster Sinclair.
- Public MAGA media companies like Newsmax have seen valuations skyrocket by riding the "meme stock" wave initiated by Trump Media, which owns the president's Truth Social platform.
Between the lines: Mainstream outlets that remain adversarial to Trump have come under heavy financial, political and regulatory pressure.
- Trump filed a $15 billion defamation lawsuit against The New York Times this week, claiming the paper is a "full-throated mouthpiece of the Democrat Party."
- He's also accused ABC and NBC of functioning as arms of the Democratic Party, and said last month he would be "in favor" of the FCC pulling their broadcast licenses.
- The Corporation for Public Broadcasting was forced to shut down after Congress cut nearly $1.1 billion in federal funding for PBS and NPR, which Trump had accused of liberal bias.
Reality check: Even amid the tectonic shifts, America's newsrooms are still producing hard-hitting, independent journalism.
- Trump is actively suing his ally Rupert Murdoch over The Wall Street Journal's coverage of his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein — a reminder that friendly ownership doesn't guarantee friendly coverage.
