CBS News boss resigns amid tensions with Trump admin
The CEO of CBS News, one of America's best-known broadcast media outlets, quit Monday citing a "challenging" last few months as the network became embroiled in legal and business tensions with the Trump administration.
U.S. President Donald Trump is suing CBS owner and media giant Paramount for $20 billion in damages over the contents of a pre-election interview last year with his Democratic rival, Kamala Harris.
Legal experts have argued the lawsuit is baseless, and would be an easy legal victory for CBS if it ever went to court, per constitutional protections for freedom of the press.
Paramount nevertheless entered into mediation in a bid to placate Trump as it seeks to close an $8 billion merger with the entertainment company Skydance, which needs federal government approval.
"The past few months have been challenging," CEO Wendy McMahon wrote in a goodbye letter to staff.
"It's become clear that the company and I do not agree on the path forward. It's time for me to move on and for this organization to move forward with new leadership," she said.
Trump alleges an interview with Harris on CBS's "60 Minutes" program last year was edited to remove an embarrassing response.
Many legal analysts maintain the suit is part of a broader assault on press freedom that has seen Trump bar some journalists from the Oval Office and sue other media organizations over their coverage.
In a message to CBS News staff, Paramount CEO George Cheeks confirmed McMahon's resignation and thanked her for her leadership.
CNBC meanwhile reported that Cheeks spoke with McMahon Saturday and asked for her resignation, citing people familiar with the matter.
The executive producer of "60 Minutes," veteran journalist Bill Owens, resigned last month, citing what he said were attacks on his independence in running the show.
Award-winning television newsmagazine broadcast "60 Minutes," which pulls around 10 million viewers weekly, is a leading target of Trump's offensive against the media.
The program has continued to air investigations critical of the Trump administration since his return to the White House.
In response, Trump has called for its cancelation, while his billionaire advisor Elon Musk has said he hoped the team behind "60 Minutes" would receive long prison sentences.
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Yomiuri Shimbun
44 minutes ago
- Yomiuri Shimbun
They Served the Nation. Now, These Veterans Say They're Protesting to Save It.
Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post Participants at a 'Protect Our Veterans' rally in Huntsville, Alabama, in March. As soon as he was old enough to enlist, there was little doubt in Reed Radcliffe's mind that he would serve his country. His father was in the Navy. His grandfather, too. Now, decades later, as he watches President Donald Trump's administration rapidly overhaul the federal workforce and propose deep cuts to the Department of Veterans Affairs, he said there was little doubt in his mind that he wanted to voice his disapproval. 'A lot of the people I served with are 100 percent disabled,' said Radcliffe, 68, who spent two decades in the Navy. 'What if they lose their care? What if they served the country but can now no longer make ends meet?' So this week he drove from St. Louis to D.C. to be among the thousands of veterans from across the country expected to pour onto the National Mall for a rally Friday afternoon that organizers say is a grassroots push 'to defend our American values, protect civil servants and restore dignity to public service.' Veteran-led protests will occur at hundreds of locations across dozens of states to protest the Trump administration's VA cuts. Veterans, who make up a disproportionate share of the federal workforce, are feeling the brunt of the rapid push to shrink the federal workforce, stirring ire in a reliable political base for Republicans. 'I didn't think I'd be doing this at my age, but I can't stand by,' said Radcliffe, who said the Unite for Veterans rally will be the first time he has protested in the nation's capital. He made a sign for the occasion: 'In America we shouldn't have to defend democracy from the president.' Organizers are expecting 10,000 to 20,000 participants and say speakers will include Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Illinois), a combat-wounded Iraq War veteran; former congressman Adam Kinzinger (R-Illinois), an Air National Guard veteran; and former congressman Conor Lamb (D-Pennsylvania), a Marine Corps veteran. Massachusetts punk rock band Dropkick Murphys is also scheduled to perform. Friday marks 81 years since D-Day, when allied forces landed on the beach in Normandy and invaded northern France during World War II. Next week, the National Mall will host a multimillion-dollar celebration honoring the Army's 250th birthday, including a day-long festival, fireworks and a parachute jump. Dozens of tanks will roll, and thousands of soldiers from across the country will march in a parade at a time when the service is cutting some programs to fund Trump's priorities. The celebration will occur on Trump's 79th birthday. Christopher Purdy, one of the rally's organizers, considers the parade to be a waste of money, but he said it is not the focus of Friday's action. 'This is not about the parade. This is about the veteran community and honoring the sacrifices of veterans,' said Purdy, who served for eight years in the National Guard and deployed to Iraq in 2011. Morale is plummeting inside VA as tens of thousands of employees prepare for deep staffing cuts, raising alarms among staffers, veterans and advocates who fear the reductions would severely damage care and benefits for millions of the nation's former service members. VA Secretary Douglas A. Collins has signaled plans to shrink the agency's workforce by 15 percent, or about 83,000 employees. Thousands of employees across VA's health and benefits systems have opted for early retirement, The Washington Post previously reported after reviewing internal data. Many of these employees said they are opting to leave out of fear that they would be laid off. Marine veteran Stephanie Schroeder, 42, said that in recent months, she has found herself having to console VA employees tasked with taking care of her because they fear losing their jobs. 'One of them even broke down in tears saying she knew she was next and she didn't know how she would be able to pay her bills,' she said. 'It's absolutely horrible that these employees who make sacrifices to work at VA caring for veterans are being treated like this.' She comes from a family of veterans and is proud to be the first woman in her family to join the military. Schroeder is the chair of the women's veterans caucus at Common Defense, a veteran-led organization, and is traveling from North Carolina to attend the rally in the hope of shining a light on the diminishing quality of care. 'Under President Biden, we were finally making progress,' she said. 'Now Trump is blowing the whole system up.' Rayven Greer, who served a year in the Navy and is 'sixth-generation military,' said she is carpooling from Pittsburgh to attend the D.C. rally. She uses a cane to walk, but said she didn't want that to stop her from marching. The stakes feel too high. 'As an LGBTQ veteran myself, I've already had care taken away,' said Greer, 30. She said she recently lost her therapist and is struggling to find another. 'Cuts aren't just going to affect me; they are going to affect my parents, my siblings, my family,' she said. 'Their lifeline, essentially, in the middle of rural Pennsylvania is the VA.'
Yomiuri Shimbun
an hour ago
- Yomiuri Shimbun
The MAGA Faithful Celebrate the End of the Trump-Musk Bromance
Tom Brenner/For The Washington Post President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference with Elon Musk on May 30 inside the Oval Office. 'Boooooooooooo CYBERTRUCK!' Raheem Kassam stood on a sidewalk in the Capitol Hill stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, pulling a Hestia cigarette from a pack and preparing to light it. He had spotted the truck, a heap of matte silver and sharp angles, parked on the street nearby. It was the uninvited guest to an unofficial party celebrating what the MAGA faithful here view as the end of Elon Musk's influence in President Donald Trump's Washington. The festive mood Thursday night came after an hours-long public feud between Musk and Trump that captivated Washington and appeared to mark the dissolution of the two men's bromance. Musk spent tens of millions to help elect Trump last year before heading up a controversial cost-cutting effort over the past five months known as the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. But Musk turned on Trump this week over the president's massive deficit-busting tax and spending plan. 'We're popping bottles tonight,' said Kassam, who had just set down his tin of caviar and pearl spoon before stepping outside for a smoke break. So goes the sentiment at Butterworth's, the French-inspired bistro on Capitol Hill that has become something of a MAGA clubhouse in Trump's second term. Kassam, the editor in chief of the National Pulse, a right-wing populist news site, is one of the investors. And 'MAGA' – Make America Great Again – is the operative adjective here. Over plates of lamb tartare and generous pours of Côtes du Rhône – perhaps the only liberal thing here – diners said their loyalties would be to Trump in the high-profile breakup. 'This is a lesson the MAGA right needed to learn right now,' he continued. The establishment Republican Party had already gone through something similar, Kassam said, when the tea party 'got bought out by the Kochs,' referring to two wealthy brothers who funded traditionalist conservative causes. 'I was very worried for a time that MAGA would be bought out by the oligarchs, too,' he said. 'And it's just so satisfying to see that that is now no longer the case.' All evening, acerbic tones of a Musk-inspired diss track could be heard across the bar. 'What people need to remember is that, you know, this is President Trump's movement,' said CJ Pearson, a Gen Z MAGA influencer. 'The least-surprising thing I've ever seen,' said Matthew Boyle, the Washington bureau chief of the conservative news outlet Breitbart. 'We were all ready for this from the beginning.' Butterworth's is a haunt of Stephen K. Bannon, the 'War Room' podcast host and former Trump adviser, and his political sympathizers. Bannon never cared for Musk, who embodied the tech right and ultrawealthy interests; the two routinely clashed over the direction of Trump's second term, with Bannon pushing a more populist, nationalist agenda. The attacks often veered into name-calling: Musk called Bannon 'a great talker, but not a great doer'; Bannon called Musk a 'truly evil person' and a 'parasitic illegal immigrant.' Bannon wasn't at Butterworth's on Thursday – he had spent much of the evening on the phone with reporters and allies, reveling in the moment. Phoning in to The Washington Post as a reporter was perched at the bar, Bannon said federal officials should investigate whether Musk, who was born and raised in South Africa, had legally entered the country and should deport him if he hadn't followed all proper procedures. The Post reported last year that Musk worked illegally in the United States as he launched his entrepreneurial career after ditching a graduate studies program in California. And Bannon said Trump should sign an executive order to keep Musk from interfering with government work that his companies have contracts on. Federal officials should take over Musk's businesses, at least temporarily, Bannon said. 'The government should seize control of SpaceX tonight through the Defense Production Act,' Bannon said. He was referring to Musk's declaration Thursday that he would decommission the spacecraft tasked with delivering supplies to the International Space Station – a threat he later retracted. And he said the government should seize Musk's Starlink satellite company while they're at it. 'He's an unstable individual who has a history of massive drug use,' Bannon said, referring to a recent New York Times report. 'He should not be in charge of essential national security programs.' What about that tantalizing tidbit Musk dropped on X – that Trump is 'in the Epstein files?' The claim referred to convicted and deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Musk threw it like a match on his way out the door. 'He is a national security threat,' Bannon said of Musk's claim against Trump and his declared support Thursday for impeaching the president to replace him with Vice President JD Vance. This evening at Butterworth's, technically, wasn't supposed to be about Musk. It was supposed to be about a plaque – specifically, one about the size of a hot dog bun, mounted near a floral pattern sofa by Butterworth's entrance. 'THE AMBASSADOR'S SOFA,' it shouted in bronze. The diplomat in question was British ambassador Peter Mandelson, who had fond notions of being served lobster thermidor 'sprawled out on this sofa here.' That's what he would prefer to talk about. But he indulged The Post's queries about Trump and Musk, too. 'Honestly, I genuinely don't know what Elon has said,' Mandelson said, when confronted about Musk's recent social media posts about Trump. 'But I think the office of the president should be respected at all times.' If Butterworth's is the safe space for the Trump faithful, the X social media site that he owns – formerly known as Twitter – is Musk's. Pearson, the influencer, has seen MAGA influencers taking Musk's side. 'It's completely economically motivated by some of these people who are, honestly, grifters,' Pearson said. 'These are folks who depend on Elon bucks to pay their rent, and now they're betraying their values and their principles simply because they need to make ends meet.' Bart Hutchins, Butterworth's chef and resident bon vivant, stood behind the host counter, turning to tend to a customer waiting to check in for his reservation. Hutchins, like Musk, has gone through more liberal and conservative phases – and Hutchins has liked Musk through none of them. 'Elon Musk is an insufferable nerd, and I hope this marks the end of his engagement with public life,' Hutchins said. 'He's an aesthetic nightmare,' he added. 'Like, he doesn't have anything interesting to say.' Back on the sidewalk, Kassam was twirling a cigarette between his fingertips. He was thinking aloud about Musk's fights with conservative leaders on the international stage, such as Nigel Farage, the leader of Britain's Reform Party whom Musk had harshly criticized. (Kassam, an associate of Farage, said Musk 'went crawling back to him, by the way, and apologized.') There was also Peter Navarro, Trump's longtime trade adviser and a top champion of aggressive tariffs who, like Bannon, served prison time after being found in contempt of Congress in connection with investigations of Trump. After the president announced his 'Liberation Day' tariff plan, Musk posted on X that Navarro was 'truly a moron.' 'Dr. Peter Navarro went to jail for the movement and for the president,' Kassam said, while admitting he is 'not even a huge fan of him personally.' 'But he's a made man. You don't get to pick fights with Dr. Peter Navarro,' Kassam continued. Kassam paused before lighting his cigarette. 'What's also really funny, what Elon doesn't realize, is all of his DOGE people leak all around town,' Kassam said. 'They talk to everyone – they talk to reporters, they talk to MAGA people, they talk to Bannon world people, they talk to everyone, because they're not political people. 'They don't know how to work in this town. And so as I stare at his Cybertruck,' Kassam continued, looking at the vehicle parked on the street a few doors down, 'his greenness has finally come back to bite him. … And good riddance.'
Yomiuri Shimbun
an hour ago
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Russian Officials Delight in Trump-Musk Rift, Offer Mediation, Asylum
Tom Brenner/For The Washington Post President Donald Trump holds a news conference with Elon Musk to mark the end of the Tesla CEO's tenure as a special government employee May 30. As President Donald Trump and the world's richest man blew up the internet by detonating their friendship, a key Kremlin point man on White House contacts used a phrase from the L.A. riots, a divisive moment in American history, to get in a dig. Posting on Elon Musk's platform X, close Putin ally Kirill Dmitriev used the famous Rodney King line to ask 'why can't we all just get along?' In Russia, as elsewhere, the internet was transfixed as Trump and Musk, the man who claimed he had gotten the president elected, traded threats and insults. Comments both wry and mocking flooded social media. As the brawl turned nastier, and Trump ally Stephen K. Bannon called for Musk to be deported as an illegal immigrant and for Trump to seize his company SpaceX, some Russian officials ironically suggested that Musk could seek asylum in Russia, joining the likes of former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden and Wirecard fugitive Jan Marsalek, who according to British prosecutors is a Russian spy. Dmitriev, the U.S.-sanctioned head of Russia's sovereign wealth fund who traveled to Washington in April to dine with Trump envoy Steve Witkoff, even asked Grok, the AI chatbot developed by Musk's xAI, what to do about the fight, seeming as eager as Fox News hosts to repair the rift. '@grok what needs to happen for @realDonaldTrump and @elonmusk to reconcile,' he posted. Grok suggested private talks and public apologies for personal attacks. 'However, their escalating conflict and public barbs suggest reconciliation is unlikely soon.' Russia's informal troller in chief Dmitry Medvedev, who held the presidency for Putin from 2008 to 2012 and is now deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, also chimed in on X with a horrified-face emoji. 'We are ready to facilitate the conclusion of a peace deal between D and E for a reasonable fee and to accept Starlink shares as payment. Don't fight, guys!' he posted Friday, referring to Musk's satellite internet network. But easily the most provocative offer came from Musk's onetime rival in spaceflight, Dmitry Rogozin, former head of Russia's space agency, Roscosmos. The two sparred publicly for years on Twitter. On Thursday, Rogozin, now an official in occupied Ukraine who heads a special technical military combat battalion, BARS-Sarmat, invited Musk to flee the United States and join in the war on Russia's side. 'Elon @elonmusk, don't be upset! You are respected in Russia. If you encounter insurmountable problems in the US, come to us and become one of us – a 'Bars-Sarmat' fighter,' he wrote on X. 'Here you will find reliable comrades and complete freedom of technical creativity.' The offer was echoed by the first deputy chairman of the international affairs committee of the lower house of parliament, Dmitry Novikov, who told the Tass state news agency that Russia could offer asylum to Musk 'if he needs it.' Beside the tsunami of bawdy memes, the Trump-Musk row exposed the ways in which America's political culture at times resembles aspects of Russia's: There were the open calls by Trump allies to probe a powerful oligarch, arrest and deport or seize his assets merely because he fell out with the president. There was Musk's claim that he was responsible for Trump's reelection, courtesy of his social media platform X and his vast political donations. Then there were Trump's threats to cut Musk's state contracts, worth billions, amid the dispute, and his comment that 'I've done a lot for him.' These evoke aspects of Putin's autocratic system of personalized patronage, which he uses to curb Russia's oligarchs and ensure total loyalty. On X, memes appeared comparing Musk to Yevgeniy Prigozhin, the Putin ally, oligarch and Wagner mercenary group founder who staged an aborted uprising in 2023 and whose plane later fell out of the sky due to an unexplained explosion, killing him and nine others, including top Wagner commanders. Some compared Musk to other Russian oligarchs who fell out with Putin over the years, including Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who was jailed for 10 years before he was forced to leave Russia, and Boris Berezovsky, a media tycoon who fled Russia in 2000 and was found dead, apparently hanged, in his Berkshire, England, home in 2013, although the coroner returned an open verdict due to several anomalies. For years Musk, as an immigrant who became the world's richest man, has been a popular figure in Russia, attracting a large fan base and sparking ironic memes about tech-savvy ideas and even inspiring cocktails. In February 2021, Musk tagged the Kremlin on Twitter to ask for a meeting with President Vladimir Putin on the then-popular Clubhouse social media app. The result of that outreach is unknown, but in March 2022 after Russia invaded Ukraine, Musk tagged the Kremlin calling for one-on-one combat with Putin to decide the war. 'I hereby challenge Vladimir Putin to single combat. Stakes are Ukraine,' wrote Musk. 'Do you agree to this fight?' he added in Russian. There was no known response. Musk strongly opposed military aid to Ukraine during the war and repeatedly accused Kyiv of corruption, although he did not carry out his 2022 threat to cut off Starlink satellite links that provide Ukraine's internet.
