Trump-friendly billionaires are consolidating control over American media, steering legacy brands and social platforms in a new conservative direction, Axios' Zachary Basu and Sara Fischer write.

• 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" last night in response to monologue comments the late-night host made about Charlie Kirk's assassination.

🖼️ 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 greenlit by China — could give one of Trump's billionaire allies unprecedented sway over a platform central to youth culture and political organizing.

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."

👓 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."

Share this story.

ABC said Jimmy Kimmel's late-night show will be "pre-empted indefinitely" after offending conservatives with comments that they said fed misinformation about the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

• Why it matters: The extraordinary move comes shortly after FCC chair Brendan Carr warned ABC about potential action over Kimmel's comments, Axios' Christine Wang writes.

In an interview posted yesterday, Carr suggested broadcasters pull or preempt "garbage" content to avoid the "possibility of fines or license revocations from the FCC."

• "This is a very, very serious issue right now for Disney," which owns ABC, Carr said on the Benny Johnson podcast. "We can do this the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to take action on Kimmel or there is going to be additional work for the FCC ahead."

👀 The intrigue: Nexstar, one of the largest local broadcast station groups, had announced it would preempt "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" on its ABC affiliates.

• Just a few weeks ago, Nexstar announced a whopping $6.2 billion deal to acquire Tegna, which would require regulatory approval from the FCC.

The big picture: ABC's decision comes at a difficult time for late-night comedy, when a hyper-partisan political environment risks alienating sizable audiences or drawing ire from people in power, Axios' Sara Fischer notes.

• In July, CBS said it would cancel "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," citing financial reasons. President Trump celebrated the move to cancel Colbert and had warned Kimmel was next.

Carr told Sean Hannity on Fox News last night that Colbert and Kimmel are "facing the consequences of the choices that they made to appeal to a very, very narrow audience" and "if you're going to have a license from the FCC, we expect you to broadly serve the public interest."

• Trump celebrated Kimmel's removal and called for NBC to move against remaining late-night hosts Seth Meyers and Jimmy Fallon.

Share this story ... Watch Kimmel's remarks.

There's a 25% chance that the future of AI will go "really, really badly," Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei told Axios CEO Jim VandeHei at our AI+ DC Summit yesterday.

• Why it matters: Amodei gave the percentage after being asked his "(p)doom number," which is the probability that things go south with AI — specifically that it destroys humanity.

"I really hate that term," Amodei said of the (p)doom quotient.

• Amodei said there's also a "75% chance that things go really, really well. ... It's a dynamic number. I hope that every time we say something, the number goes hopefully down, not up."

Jack Clark, his Anthropic co-founder, said: "The 25% chance is a choice that we make and a choice that we make in policy. So, I'm here trying to push that number way down by talking to policymakers, and so is Dario."

• Watch the interview ... Share this story.

Scale AI faced questions about its future after Meta poached its star founder and CEO in June. But interim CEO Jason Droege made the case at our AI+ DC Summit that his AI firm is growing and thriving.

• Why it matters: Droege, in his first public interview since taking Scale's helm, told Axios tech policy reporter Maria Curi that the company is moving beyond its data-labeling business into the AI applications and services realm, with a focus on government.

The big picture: Meta took a 49% stake in Scale in June in a $14 billion deal, at the same time that it hired Scale founder and CEO Alexandr Wang, who became Meta's chief AI officer, Axios managing editor for tech Scott Rosenberg notes.

• Scale then named Droege, its chief strategy officer, as its interim CEO.

🔬 Zoom in: Droege paints a positive picture of the company today, on the heels of the announcement of a Defense Department deal worth up to $100 million.

• Each of Scale's main revenue streams is now a "multi-hundred-million-dollar business," Droege said, with the newer applications business bringing in $200-$300 million and the more mature data business "very, very large."
• "We've grown every single month since the deal happened," he said.

Share this story.

President Trump hailed the U.S.-U.K. "special relationship" during a lavish state banquet hosted by King Charles III at Windsor Castle last night.

• Trump said becoming the first world leader to be invited for a second state visit to the U.K. was one of the "highest honors" of his life.

The dinner followed a day of pageantry with the British royal family that involved 120 horses and 1,300 troops — including the largest guard of honor in living memory.

The guest list included Apple's Tim Cook, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Open AI's Sam Altman, golfer Nick Faldo and Rupert Murdoch.

• The musical playlist included Trump favorites "Tiny Dancer" by Elton John and "You Can't Always Get What You Want" by the Rolling Stones, in addition to the James Bond theme.

Trump will spend today with Prime Minister Keir Starmer at Chequers, the British leader's rural retreat.

• More on the dinner (BBC).

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s push to reshape vaccine policy will hit a crescendo today when his handpicked advisory panel is expected to consider limiting the availability of MMR, hepatitis B and COVID-19 shots, Axios Vitals author Tina Reed writes.

• Why it matters: The panel traditionally operates on scientific consensus and makes recommendations to the director of the CDC.

But Kennedy's summertime purge of the committee — and the lack of a full-time political leader at the agency — has many in the scientific and health community convinced that the new appointees will rubber-stamp more limits on who can get routine shots.

• On the eve of the meeting, the Democratic governors of Oregon, Washington, California and Hawai'i, along with Massachusetts, released a set of immunization guidelines for their own states that, among other things, appear to eliminate the need for a prescription to get a COVID booster.

Keep reading ... Go deeper: Ex-CDC chief details agency turmoil under RFK Jr.

Mark Zuckerberg announced that Meta's newest AI-powered smart glasses include a tiny display, and can be controlled by a neural wristband using "barely perceptible movements," AP reports from Menlo Park, Calif.

• Why it matters: The Meta founder, chair and CEO evangelizes glasses as the next step in human-computer interactions — beyond keyboards, touch screens or a mouse.

"Glasses are the only form factor where you can let AI see what you see, hear what you hear," Zuckerberg said during the Connect developer conference.

• The glasses, Meta Ray-Ban Display, will be available Sept. 30 for $799.

Mike Proulx, research director at Forrester, said Meta's latest reveal is "reminiscent of when the Apple Watch first debuted as an alternative to the smartphone."

Meta also unveiled a new set of AI-powered glasses for athletes, called the Oakley Meta Vanguard (above), which Meta says is specifically for "high-intensity sports" and can be integrated with Garmin devices to give users feedback about their workouts, including heart rate and stats.

• For instance, a runner could ask "Hey Meta, what's my heart rate?" — and get a voice response through the glasses. The glasses also auto-capture video clips when the user hits key milestones or ramps up their heart rate, speed or elevation. The glasses will cost $499 and go on sale Oct. 21.

See the glasses ... More on Ray-Bans ... More on Oakleys.

The D.C. Council last night approved a $3.7 billion deal to build a new Washington Commanders stadium at the former RFK Stadium site and kickstart development of a residential neighborhood, Axios D.C.'s Cuneyt Dil writes.

• Why it matters: The resurgent NFL team is coming back to the land of its Super Bowl-winning seasons from suburban Maryland, generating new tax revenue and thousands of jobs at a time when the city is trying to rejuvenate its DOGE-battered economy.

The District committed about $1 billion in public subsidies to demolish and prepare the RFK Stadium footprint.

• The Commanders franchise, purchased by private equity billionaire Josh Harris in 2023, will pay $2.7 billion for a 65,000-seat domed stadium, meant to one day host a Super Bowl and dozens of non-sports events annually.

Keep reading.