Trump in talks to appear on ’60 minutes’, Semafor reports

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(Reuters) -The White House is in talks with CBS News program “60 Minutes” about conducting an interview with U.S. President Donald Trump, Semafor reported on Thursday, citing four people with knowledge of the discussions.

Reuters could not immediately verify the Semafor report.

News of the possible interview comes after media reports that CBS-parent Paramount Skydance will soon announce its takeover of center-right online news outlet, The Free Press, and hire its co-founder, Bari Weiss, as editor-in-chief of CBS News.

Paramount in July agreed to pay $16 million to settle a lawsuit filed by Trump over his claim that CBS deceptively edited a “60 Minutes” interview with his Democratic presidential opponent Kamala Harris last year.

Earlier this year, former “60 Minutes” executive producer Bill Owens resigned, citing concerns over editorial independence. CBS News president Wendy McMahon later stepped down, saying she and the company had differing views on the path forward.

The company has also announced that it would next year cancel the show of comedian Stephen Colbert, a frequent critic of Trump.

David Ellison, CEO of Skydance and the son of Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison, has been rapidly transforming Paramount into a sprawling sports, media and news empire.

Larry Ellison, a strong supporter of Trump, briefly became the richest man in the world last month after a surge in Oracle’s stock price driven by large contracts in artificial intelligence. Elon Musk later regained that spot.

Ellison is also part of a group of investors negotiating a deal to keep TikTok operating in the United States.

Reuters reported last month that Paramount was preparing to bid for Warner Bros Discovery, which would unite two of Hollywood’s biggest studios and two major news networks, CBS News and CNN.

(Reporting by Rishabh Jaiswal in Bengaluru and Andrea Shalal in Washington; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Lincoln Feast.)