Trump Attends Media Dinner Amid $111B Merger Review

President Donald Trump attended a private dinner hosted by Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison in Washington, D.C., on Thursday evening, where the event honored both the president and CBS News White House correspondents amid ongoing efforts to secure federal approval for a $111 billion media merger.

The gathering took place at the United States Institute of Peace, recently renamed the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace by the State Department, and began with cocktails at 6:15 p.m., followed by dinner at 7:15 p.m. Invitations described the closed-door event as an intimate celebration of the First Amendment. Trump delivered remarks for nearly an hour, though the content of his speech was not publicly detailed. Attendees included First Lady Melania Trump, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, deputy White House chief of staff Stephen Miller, and Paramount's chief legal officer Makan Delrahim, a former Justice Department antitrust official during Trump's first term. From CBS News, participants comprised editor in chief Bari Weiss, who sat at Trump's table alongside her wife Nellie Bowles; former Evening News anchor Norah O'Donnell; president Tom...