David Ellison Dines With Trump & Xi As CEO’s Soon-To-Be Owned CNN Banned From White House, Again

Reporters from CNN aren’t allowed in to the White House’s state dinner Thursday for China’s president Xi Jinping, but the news outlet’s soon-to-be owner will be breaking bread with Xi and Donald Trump, along with a gaggle of tech bosses. Striving to get a settlement in Paramount‘s $111 billion merger with Warner Bros Discovery approved by a federal judge, CEO David Ellison is among the invited guests to tonight’s superpower sit-down. A past donor to Democrats, the son of Oracle founder and close Trump ally Larry Ellison has become close to the MAGA administration in his pursuit of first Paramount last year and more recently WBD. That closeness to Trump has proven a major concern to opponents of the ParaBros mega-deal, especially when it comes to the now Bari Weiss-run CBS New and, down the line, CNN. From left: Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos and Sam Altman Getty Images The tech-leaning Ellison will be among a band of brothers with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Google co-founder Sergey Brin, TikTok’s Jeff Yass, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang and Microsoft’s Satya Nadella at tonight’s White House event. Along with the titans of traditional industry Trump loves to surround himself with like Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg, JP Morgan’s Jamie Dimon and Dell’s Michael Dell, Elon Musk, Apple’s former CEO Tim Cook and Amazon founder and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos will be partaking of the three-course meal. Watch on Deadline Chinese officials, White House senior staff, cabinet members, Trump offspring, congressional GOP leaders and several members of the Supreme Court are also in attendance. Equally unsurprisingly, Fox News‘ Jesse Waters, Laura Ingraham (called an “American television presenter”) and Bret Baier are on the state dinner guest list too with their respective spouses. Banned from the White House by Trump last week, CNN, MS Now and Politico took the administration to court, where Judge Timothy Kelly ordered the outlets be re-credentialed — which they were for a while today and then tonight they were not. With Trump TV now launched online, the saga continues. Below is the official guest list for tonight’s state dinner: President Donald J. Trump First Lady Melania Trump President Xi Jinping Madame Peng Liyuan Vice President JD Vance Second Lady Usha Vance Secretary of State Marco Rubio Jeanette Rubio, Spouse of the Secretary of State Chief of Staff Susie Wiles U.S. Ambassador to China David Perdue Bonnie Perdue, Spouse of the US Ambassador to China Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent John Freeman, Spouse of the Secretary of the Treasury Secretary of War Pete Hegseth Ambassador Jamieson Greer, United States Trade Representative Marlo Greer, Spouse of Ambassador Greer Cai Qi, CPC Political Bureau Standing Committee Member, Chief of Staff to President Xi Wang Yi, CPC Political Bureau Central Committee Member He Lifeng, CPC Political Bureau Central Committee, Vice Premier of State Council Zheng Shanjie, Chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission Wang Wentao, Minister of Commerce Ma Zhaoxu, Executive Vice Foreign Minister Ambassador Xie Feng, Chinese Ambassador to the United States Ms. Ivanka Trump Mr. Eric Trump Ms. Lara Trump Ms. Tiffany Trump Mr. Michael Boulos Mr. Viktor Knavs Ms. Arabella Kushner Jensen Huang, NVIDIA, CEO Lori Huang, Spouse of Jensen Huang Mark Zuckerberg, Meta, CEO Dr. Lisa Su, Advanced Micro Devices, CEO Daniel Lin, Spouse of Lisa Su Tim Cook, Chairman of the Board of Apple John F.W. Rogers, Goldman Sachs EVP and Secretary to the Board Lynn Martin, President of the NYSE Linda Mills, President of New York University Eric Yuan, Zoom, CEO Tang Fangyu Director, Central Policy Research Office of the CPC Central Committee Minister of Finance Mr. Lan Fo’an Mme. Wang Dan, Wife of Ambassador Xie Feng Zhou Hongxu Deputy Director, General Office of the CPC Central Committee Director, Central Security Bureau Lyu Luhua, Secretary to the President Hong Lei, Assistant Foreign Minister Director General, Protocol Department Cai Wei, Assistant Foreign Minister Director General, Department of North American and Oceanian Affairs Mao Ning, Director General, Department of Press, Communication and Public Diplomacy, Ministry of Foreign Affairs Zhang Quan, Secretary to Madame Peng Zhang Yongchao, Deputy Director General, Department of North American and Oceanian Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs Kelly Ortberg, Boeing, CEO Larry Fink, Blackrock, CEO Stephen Schwarzman, Blackstone, CEO Sam Altman, OpenAI, CEO Greg Brockman, OpenAI, President & Co-Founder Anna Brockman, Wife of Greg Brockman Dr. Miriam Adelson, Las Vegas Sand, Controlling Shareholder Sergey Brin, Google/Alphabet, Co-Founder Gerelyn Gilbert-Soto, Partner of Sergey Brin Satya Nadella, Microsoft, Chairman & CEO Jim Taiclet, Lockheed Martin, Chairman, President & CEO Sundar Pichai, Google, CEO Larry Culp, GE Aerospace, CEO Sanjay Mehrotra, Micron, CEO Cristiano Amon, Qualcomm, CEO Jeff Bezos, Amazon, Chairman Lauren Sanchez-Bezos, Spouse of Jeff Bezos Jeff Yass, TikTok Jamie Dimon, JP Morgan, CEO Michael Dell, Dell, CEO Mary Barra, General Motors, CEO David Solomon, Goldman Sachs, CEO Jane Fraser, Citi, CEO Elon Musk, SpaceX & Tesla, CEO Darren Woods, ExxonMobil, CEO Chief Justice John Roberts, Chief Supreme Court Justice Jane Sullivan Roberts, Chief Supreme Court Justice Spouse Justice Amy Coney Barrett, Supreme Court Justice Jesse Barrett, Supreme Court Justice Spouse Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Supreme Court Justice Ashley Estes Kavanaugh, Spouse of Supreme Court Justice Speaker Mike Johnson, United States House of Representatives, Louisiana Kelly Johnson, Spouse of Speaker Mike Johnson Bret Baier, FOX News, American Journalist and Host Amy Baier, Spouse of Brett Baier Laura Ingraham, FOX News, American Television Presenter Representative Richard McCormick, United States House of Representatives, Georgia Jesse Waters, FOX News Host Emma Waters, Spouse of Jesse Waters David Ellison, Paramount Skydance, CEO Susan Dell, Spouse to Michael Dell Kevin Warsh, Chairman of the Federal Reserve Jane Lauder, Spouse to Kevin Warsh Secretary Howard Lutnick, Secretary of Commerce Allison Lutnick, Spouse to Secretary Lutnick Director John Ratcliffe, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency Michelle Ratcliffe, Spouse to Director Ratcliffe Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, U.S. Special Envoy to Middle East Stephen Miller, Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Homeland Security Advisor, Assistant to the President Katie Miller, Spouse of Stephen Miller Dan Scavino, Deputy Chief of Staff, Assistant to the President Erin Scavino, Spouse to Dan Scavino Attorney General Todd Blanche, Attorney General of the United States Kristine Blanche, Spouse to Attorney General Todd Blanche Meredith O’Rourke, The O’Rourke Group Secretary Chris Wright, Secretary of Energy Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Secretary of Health & Human Services Secretary Linda McMahon, Secretary of Education Secretary Doug Burgum, Secretary of Interior Kathryn Burgum, Spouse to Secretary Burgum Secretary Sean Duffy, Secretary of Transportation Rachel Campos-Duffy, Spouse of Sean Duffy Director Russell Vought, Director of Office of Management & Budget Administrator Lee Zeldin, Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency Acting Secretary Keith Sonderling, Acting Secretary of Labor Brad Gerstner, Altimeter, CEO Sangeeta Mehrota, Spouse of Sanjay Mehrotra Anthony Barra, Spouse of Mary Barra Kathy Woods, Spouse of Darren Woods Albert Bourla, Pfizer, CEO David Sacks, Co-chair, President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology Administrator Kelly Loeffler, Small Business Administrator Jeff Sprecher, Spouse of Kelly Loeffler Katie Simpson, Fiancé to Brad Gerstner Representative Jason Smith, United States House of Representatives, Missouri Senator Steven Daines, United States Senator, Montana General Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Director Jay Clayton, Director of Office of the Director of National Intelligence Bernard Arnault, LVMH, CEO Alexandre Arnault, Son of Bernard Arnault Ryan McInerey, Visa, CEO Michael Miebach, Mastercard, CEO Sandra Lynn Ellison, Spouse of David Ellison Cheryl Hines, Spouse of Secretary Kennedy