President Trump is making it clear he wants CNN to be sold to new owners as part of any deal to acquire some or all of its parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery, WBD. The current plan – for CNN to be spun off into a new company made up of WBD’s cable channels, including the Discovery Channel, led by WBD’s current chief financial officer – is unacceptable, according to a well-sourced report in the Wall Street Journal. 

The speculation about the future of CNN appeared to be over last week when WBD accepted Netflix’s $83 billion offer to acquire its streaming and studio assets. That deal meant that the cable news network would be spun off into a separate company, led by WBD’s chief financial officer, Gunnar Wiedenfels. The news left CNN’s reliably liberal employees breathing a sigh of relief, according to the New York Times, with the expectation that they would not be sold to Paramount, which is controlled by the Ellison family, who are aligned with President Trump. 

But this week, Paramount launched a hostile takeover bid, raising questions about whether the Netflix deal would be finalized. 

Mr. Trump is expected to play a pivotal role in the deal, considering that it will require government approval.

On Wednesday, he weighed in for the first time on the WBD deal, telling reporters at the White House that he believes that CNN should be sold. 

“I’m not involved in that. I will be … maybe involved in the decision. It depends. You have some good companies bidding on it,” Mr. Trump said. “I think the people that have run CNN for the last long period of time are a disgrace. I think it’s imperative that CNN be sold.”

He added, “I think CNN should be sold because I think the people that are running CNN right now are either corrupt or incompetent … I think any deal, it should be guaranteed and certain that CNN is part of it or sold separately.”

The president has reportedly been telling allies that he wants CNN to be sold to owners who are friendlier to him, the Wall Street Journal reported. He has also expressed disapproval with the current plan for CNN to be run by Mr. Wiedenfels, along with WBD’s other cable assets. The Journal reports, he has floated the idea of CNN being “completely sold off.”

What Mr. Trump means by “the people who are running CNN” is unclear. He may mean the CEO of WBD, David Zaslav, and his deputy, Mr. Wiedenfels. But he could also be rolling up in his appraisal the day-to-day leaders who operate CNN. The beleaguered news operation is currently led by Mark Thompson, a veteran of far-left media outlets The New York Times and the BBC, and his deputy Virginia Moseley, whose husband is a close associate of Hillary Clinton and Presidents Obama and Biden and was Mr. Biden’s ambassador to Israel.

Despite exhortations from WBD’s most powerful shareholder, the famous “cable cowboy” John Malone, that CNN should moderate its fierce anti-Trump tone it assumed during the first Trump term, the network has remained resolutely anti-Trump, with new stars such as Abby Philip taking up the anti-Trump torch from fired Trump foes Don Lemon and Chris Cuomo. Efforts by WBD’s management to moderate CNN have sputtered in the face of uniform opposition from CNN staff.

Media insiders note that cable networks are in decline, a trend that is not expected to be reversed. As a result, the prospect of buying a struggling cable news network on its own would likely not be appealing to any potential buyer. As of now, Paramount is the only entity that wants CNN (along with the rest of WBD).

Mr. Trump has reportedly “said positive things” about Paramount — which is controlled by the Ellison family — and its offer to acquire all of WBD, according to the Journal. But he has also moderated his tone towards Netflix, which has a history of far-left programming and chumminess between its top executives and the Obamas, whom Netflix paid an enormous sum for programming that largely performed poorly.  

Larry Ellison, the world’s second-richest man and father of David Ellison, who runs Paramount, has reportedly had several private meetings with Mr. Trump since the start of his second term, and has reportedly discussed firing anti-Trump personalities at CNN if Paramount acquires the network. Meanwhile, the Journal reported that David Ellison reportedly promised major changes at the cable network if he acquires WBD. 

The Federal Communications Commission, one of the agencies that would likely be involved in approving the WBD deal, is supposed to be an independent agency, giving it flexibility to make decisions without political pressure from the White House. The Trump-appointed chairman of the FCC, Brendan Carr, has been accused by left-wing commentators of not acting independently and using his authority to punish news outlets critical of the president or to pressure others to go along with the president’s wishes. This week, Mr. Carr ridiculed concerns about the heads of “independent” agencies being “aligned” with Mr. Trump. 

In Mr. Trump’s first term, his administration sought to block AT&T’s takeover of what was then known as Time Warner. However, in 2018, a judge dismissed the administration’s antitrust case and let the deal go through. 

Although the current process is far from over — with the future of Netflix’s offer uncertain and what will likely be a lengthy review process of any sale on the horizon — CNN personalities were fretting on Wednesday about Mr. Trump’s statement that he might be involved. 

During a segment of “The Lead,” host Jake Tapper said Mr. Trump was “breaking with longstanding precedent on the role of a president when it comes to private commercial transactions.”

“He’s making his position on the acquisition very clear,” Mr. Tapper said. “He’s very focused on the fate of this news network, and he will involve himself in the purchase.”

Mr. Tapper said, “President Trump is making that very clear he does not want that to happen. He wants this channel sold under new management, he says, so that CNN’s leadership can be fired, so that CNN’s editorial content can be changed.”

A far-left journalist, Oliver Darcy, who used to work for CNN and now writes a liberal media newsletter, appeared on Mr. Tapper’s show and accused the president of being a “thin-skinned, aspiring autocrat who wants to seize control of the media.”

Meanwhile, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins said on her show, “The Source,” that the president’s statement was “astounding.”

Warner Bros. Discovery did not comment on the president’s statement.