NBC News’s corporate parent, Comcast, appears to be extending an olive branch to President Trump with a donation to the new ballroom he is building at the White House, while the media conglomerate is trying to distance itself from left-wing MSNBC, which it’s spinning off into a separate company.

The ballroom is expected to cost “about $300 million.” However, Mr. Trump says its construction is being funded by private donations and will not come at taxpayers’ expense. Some of the donors include the country’s biggest technology corporations, such as Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta. But Comcast is the only traditional media company to contribute.

Comcast is believed to be eyeing an acquisition of all or parts of Warner Bros. Discovery – the parent company of CNN – which earlier this week said it is open to a sale. The amount of Comcast’s donation has not been publicly disclosed.  Paramount Skydance, led by David Ellison, the son of the world’s second-richest man and Trump supporter, Larry Ellison, has already bid twice for WBD and been turned down. 

The Ellisons are currently seen as the favorites to get WBD, according to Wall Street analysts. But Comcast, which has a lot to lose if Paramount and WBD merge into a media giant on par with Disney, is seen as a deep-pocketed dark horse.

An acquisition of WBD would likely require the Trump Administration’s approval. 

A veteran media reporter, Matthew Belloni, discussed the potential WBD sale, and his guest, the managing director of Wolfe Research, Peter Supino, noted that Comcast is spinning off its cable companies, including MSNBC, under a new company, Versant, and questioned whether Comcast would really want to buy cable companies. But he also suggested that Comcast may be interested in the purchase to acquire WBD’s streaming service, HBO Max, to better compete with Netflix, Amazon, and Apple.

Mr. Belloni said, “The problem they have is the Trump stuff. Trump hates them. He blames them for MSNBC, even though that’s being spun off. He’s investigating their DEI policies.”

“I did see that Comcast made a very nice donation to the new ballroom at the White House that Trump is building, so maybe that is the overture to try to get on his good side,” Mr. Belloni said. “But if there was announced a merger of the companies that own CNN and MSNBC, Donald Trump would go nuts.”

Mr. Trump has routinely criticized Comcast and its CEO, Brian Roberts, for the steady stream of critical coverage from NBC News and MSNBC. 

In April, Mr. Trump suggested that the decision to spin off MSNBC was an attempt by Comcast to avoid a lawsuit from him. 

“Comcast, which also has the ailing network known as NBC, is trying to stay away from lawsuits by disassociating NBC from MSNBC, but it won’t work,” the president said on Truth Social. “Comcast, the owner of both, and it’s [sic] Chairman, Brian Roberts, are a disgrace to the integrity of Broadcasting!!!”

Mr. Trump has also urged the Federal Communications Commission to revoke NBC’s broadcast license. In August, Mr. Trump said ABC and NBC are “two of the worst and most biased networks in history,” as he said that “97 percent” of their coverage consists of “bad stories” about his administration. 

“IF THAT IS THE CASE, THEY ARE SIMPLY AN ARM OF THE DEMOCRAT PARTY AND SHOULD, ACCORDING TO MANY, HAVE THEIR LICENSES REVOKED BY THE FCC. I would be totally in favor of that because they are so biased and untruthful, an actual threat to our Democracy!!!” he wrote.

Of the three major broadcast networks that frequently produce anti-Trump and anti-MAGA content — ABC, NBC, and CBS – only NBC has avoided a lawsuit from Mr. Trump so far, despite his warnings. 

In December, ABC paid $16 million to settle Mr. Trump’s defamation lawsuit after host George Stephanopoulos falsely and repeatedly said the president had been “found liable for rape.” Mr. Trump threatened to sue ABC again after it decided to bring late-night host Jimmy Kimmel back on the air after a roughly week-long suspension for comments he made about the person accused of shooting Charlie Kirk.

CBS’s parent company, Paramount Global, agreed to pay $16 million in July to settle Mr. Trump’s defamation lawsuit against CBS over its editing of Vice President Harris’s “60 Minutes” interview. Left-wing journalists and scholars speculated that Skydance’s acquisition of Paramount was held up by the FCC until Mr. Trump’s lawsuit was resolved. Paramount and the FCC have publicly stated that the two matters were unrelated. 

While NBC is facing investigations into its DEI policies and treatment of local stations, it has not yet been put in the position of weighing whether to pay a settlement or go through the process of a protracted, expensive, and potentially embarrassing legal fight. 

Besides jettisoning MSNBC and stripping the liberal network of the famous peacock logo and the “NBC” portion of its name, in an attempt to distance itself from the liberal network, Comcast appears to be taking steps to try to placate the Trump Administration. 

Last week, NBC News came under fire after it announced it was slashing 150 jobs. A source told the Wrap that the cuts “did not target specific teams and were driven by the network’s budget and the desire to streamline its editorial efforts.” But the cuts did target NBC News’s diversity verticals.  These verticals were NBC BLK, focusing on black people, NBC Asian America, NBC Latino, and NBC OUT, focusing on gay, lesbian, transgender, and “queer” issues. Liberal social media users accused the network of being “MAGA state media” and trying to placate the Trump Administration. 

While Comcast has taken some steps that appear to be overtures to the Trump Administration, NBC News has retained several of its most liberal journalists, such as its far-left White House correspondent, Yamiche Alcindor, who frequently challenges Mr. Trump and his press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, with liberal talking points. 

Also staying with NBC after the divorce are MSNBC’s liberal data maven Steve Kornacki, anti-Trump “Meet the Press” host Kristen Welker, and weekend “Nightly News” host Jose Diaz Balart, a fierce critic of Mr. Trump’s immigration policies who also works for Telemundo. 

NBCNews.com, which will still be controlled by NBCNews when the divorce from MSNBC and CNBC is finalized, continues to be anti-Trump and anti-Israel in its coverage.

Comcast did not respond to the Sun’s request for comment by the time of publication.