{"id":5930,"date":"2026-09-21T21:07:57","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T21:07:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/watchthenews.store\/?p=5930"},"modified":"2026-09-21T21:07:57","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T21:07:57","slug":"trump-admits-live-on-cnn-were-trying-to-have-cnn-go-on-a-normal-path-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/watchthenews.store\/?p=5930","title":{"rendered":"Trump admits live on CNN \u201cwe\u2019re trying to have CNN go on a normal path\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

President Trump stated during a phone call to CNN that his administration is actively working to put the network \u201con a normal path,\u201d raising concerns about press independence and government influence over media coverage.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Trump called into CNN\u2019s \u201cState of the Union\u201d on Sunday to discuss Senator Lindsey Graham\u2019s death. During the brief conversation, he made the statement about directing the network\u2019s editorial direction, which immediately sparked debate about the relationship between the executive branch and American news organizations.<\/p>\n

What Trump Said<\/h2>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trying to have CNN go on a normal path, and we\u2019ll do that,\u201d Trump said during the call. He declined to answer questions beyond the topic of Graham\u2019s passing, including questions about recent U.S. military strikes on Iran.<\/p>\n

Anchor Jake Tapper did not challenge the statement. Instead, he thanked Trump for his time and invited him to return to the network in the future.<\/p>\n

Public Reaction<\/h2>\n

Social media users quickly expressed concern about the exchange. Some criticized Tapper for not pushing back on Trump\u2019s remarks about influencing CNN\u2019s coverage.<\/p>\n

Critics noted that a president should not be directing the editorial decisions of any news organization. One commenter said that if CNN accepts direction from the administration, it should \u201cclose their doors, or officially merge with Fox.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Timing<\/h2>\n

The admission comes as the Justice Department recently approved Paramount Skydance\u2019s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, CNN\u2019s parent company. The merger requires regulatory approval, which observers noted could be influenced by the administration.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s comment about putting CNN on a \u201cnormal path\u201d while the company awaits government approval of a major acquisition raised questions about potential leverage in the relationship.<\/p>\n

The Context<\/h2>\n

Months earlier, Tapper had stated on air that CNN\u2019s role \u201cis not to try and please the president or only report the statements he likes.\u201d On Sunday, media observers noted the interaction appeared to contradict that earlier statement.<\/p>\n

This story has been updated. CNN\u2019s staff contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Trump stated during a phone call to CNN that his administration is actively working to put the network \u201con a normal path,\u201d raising concerns about press independence and government … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5931,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchthenews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchthenews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchthenews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchthenews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchthenews.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5930"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/watchthenews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5930\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5932,"href":"https:\/\/watchthenews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5930\/revisions\/5932"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchthenews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchthenews.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchthenews.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchthenews.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}