Dozens of lawmakers and protesters crowded the National Mall on Thursday night to denounce what they called a corrupt power grab, as Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison hosted an intimate dinner honoring the Trump administration just as federal regulators weigh his company's massive $110 billion merger with WarnerBros Discovery, CNN's parent.
The timing stoked fierce criticism from Capitol Hill. U.S. Representative Jamie Raskin branded the event "a lavish oligarch's dinner for Donald Trump," saying Ellison was using it to "cement the Ellisons to the president in their years-running corrupt merger scheme."
Raskin told the assembled crowd that the proposed merger would concentrate vast media power in the hands of a single family, consolidating television networks "in the interests of the Maga movement and the Donald Trump family."
Democratic Vermont Representative Becca Balint, who sits on the House antitrust subcommittee, drew a sharper contrast. While protesters stood outside demanding accountability, she said, "inside they are celebrating power. That's what they're celebrating: power and corruption."
The dinner occurred as WarnerBros Discovery shareholders voted overwhelmingly to approve the merger on Thursday. The deal still requires clearance from the Department of Justice and European regulators.
Norm Eisen, founder of Democracy Defenders Action, mocked the dinner's stated purpose of celebrating the First Amendment. "That resembles a celebration of the first amendment the same way a book burning is a celebration of the written word," he said.
Trump is scheduled to attend Saturday's White House Correspondents' Dinner, where CBS News has purchased multiple tables. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is expected to sit at one of them.
Antitrust experts have suggested that a lawsuit from a coalition of state attorneys general represents the most realistic path to blocking the merger. Speakers urged supporters not to abandon the fight.
Author James Rodriguez: "This dinner might be the most blatant example yet of how money and access flow together in Trump's Washington, and the optics alone could haunt both the merger and the administration down the road."
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