Paramount Global CEO David Ellison attended President Donald Trump’s East Room dinner for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Tuesday just hours after a Paramount spokesperson denied reports that the company is forming an investment consortium of Arab wealth funds to support its bid for Warner Bros. Discovery.
Earlier Tuesday, Variety reported that the Ellison family, which holds full voting control of Paramount Skydance, was assembling a $71 billion bid for WBD “in conjunction with funds from three Arab countries: Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA).”
Paramount Skydance denied the report. “The information Variety published is categorically inaccurate,” a spokesperson said. “This is a confidential process, which we respect and, as such, will not be commenting until the process is over.”
Ellison’s Paramount Skydance is among the race of companies, including like Comcast and Netflix, bidding for Warner Bros. Discovery ahead of a pre-Thanksgiving deadline. The Nov. 20 deadline is to submit non-binding first-round bids with a decision on a potential transaction expected around Christmas.
Tuesday evening, Ellison joined a slew of influential guests attending Trump’s dinner for the crown prince, which according to the New York Times included the likes of Elon Musk, soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo and General Motors head Mary Barra, all of whom have notable ties to Saudi Arabia. The White House is expected to release a full formal guest list, according to the report.
The dinner and overall warm reception from the White House for Prince Mohammed marked a striking shift in U.S.–Saudi relations. The prince’s trip is his first visit to the United States since the 2018 killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, a murder that U.S. intelligence concluded he ordered, which the prince has denied.
Earlier Tuesday, Trump criticized Khashoggi during an Oval Office press conference with Prince Mohammed. During the presser, ABC News chief White House correspondent Mary Bruce asked the foreign leader about the murder and the president responded saying, “things happen.” He also interjected before Bruce could finish calling ABC “fake news” and “one of the worst in the business” before suggesting the outlet should lose its license.
“A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about,” Trump added, calling Khashoggi “extremely controversial.” “Whether you like him or didn’t like him, things happen, but he knew nothing about it.”
Prince Mohammed said on Tuesday that Khashoggi’s death was “painful” for Saudi Arabia, claiming the U.S.-based journalist lost his life “for no real purpose.” “We‘ve improved our system to be sure that nothing like that happens,” he said. “We’re doing our best that this doesn’t happen again.”
Also in their Tuesday meeting, Trump and the crown prince framed their relationship as a mutually advantageous partnership. The president has already approved the sale of F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia, while the crown prince has pledged roughly $600 billion in investments in the United States.
