President Donald Trump called into CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday to discuss the sudden death of Sen. Lindsey Graham and, in the same appearance, said his administration was trying to put the network “on a normal path.”
The phone interview with Jake Tapper was meant as a tribute. Graham, 71, a South Carolina Republican and longtime Trump ally after years as a critic, had died Saturday after returning from Ukraine. A preliminary finding by the District of Columbia medical examiner listed aortic dissection tied to arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Trump said he had spoken with Graham hours earlier and described him as tired but otherwise well.
Tapper then asked about U.S. strikes on Iran and control of the Strait of Hormuz. Trump declined, saying he did not want to discuss other issues “out of respect” for Graham. Tapper accepted the limit and invited him back. “Sure, we’ll do that,” Trump said. “We’re trying to have CNN go on a normal path, and we’ll do that.” Tapper replied that he was “on a normal path right here,” thanked the president for calling, and said CNN would love to have him again.
Critics treated the exchange as more than a throwaway line. They argued a sitting president should not claim a role in setting a news network’s course, and that an anchor who does not challenge that claim looks like an accommodation rather than a check. Defenders said Trump was needling a network he has long accused of hostile coverage and that Tapper was simply keeping a memorial segment from turning into a policy fight.
The remark landed against a larger ownership fight. In June the Justice Department cleared Paramount Skydance’s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, CNN’s parent. State attorneys general and the Writers Guild later moved to slow the deal, and Paramount has since said closing could slip well into 2027. Critics say regulatory leverage over a parent company makes any talk of a network’s “path” sound like pressure. Supporters say antitrust review and editorial policy are separate, and that one sentence on live television is not a takeover of the press.
The tension is older than the call. Trump has spent years attacking CNN; Tapper has said the network’s job is not to please a president. Sunday’s segment put both claims on the same air: a eulogy, a refused question, an invitation to return, and a line about steering the network that viewers will read as either a joke, a warning, or both.
