Trump’s son-in-law part of Israeli-tied firm’s bid for CNN's parent company

US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, has emerged as one of the outside investors backing Paramount Skydance’s hostile bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, a deal that could hand partial ownership of CNN to the Trump family.

Paramount disclosed Monday that Kushner’s private equity firm, Affinity Partners, is among the investors lined up to support the $40 billion cash component of the offer.

The company said the primary backstop is coming from Larry Ellison, the billionaire Oracle founder and father of Paramount CEO David Ellison, along with RedBird Capital Partners.

The Ellison family has long maintained close political, business, and philanthropic ties to Israel, a relationship that has increasingly drawn attention amid debates over foreign influence in US media ownership.

Under Ellison’s leadership, Paramount has taken a strong stance against boycotts targeting Israeli films or filmmakers.

When a pledge circulated in September, signed by figures such as Emma Stone and Javier Bardem, backing a boycott of Israeli cultural institutions, Paramount stood out as the first major studio to publicly denounce the initiative, calling it an attempt to “silence individual creative artists based on their nationality.”

One month later, following a legal notice from UK Lawyers for Israel, Warner Bros. Discovery also stated that any boycott of Israeli film organizations would violate its anti-discrimination policies.

Meanwhile, Variety has reported that Paramount executives have barred certain artists they consider “overtly antisemitic,” a term widely misused in the West to label those who criticize Israeli policies. 

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Affinity Partners’ involvement adds an unusual political dimension to the proposed takeover. Any acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery would require approval from the Trump administration.

Trump has repeatedly criticized CNN — one of Warner Bros. Discovery’s flagship assets — raising concerns about impartiality in the review process.

Over the weekend, Trump said he would be “involved” in the regulatory examination of a separate Netflix deal, a remark that surprised regulatory experts given the traditional independence of such reviews.

Kushner founded Affinity Partners after Trump’s first term and has faced scrutiny over the fund’s substantial backing from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.

Affinity, which manages about $5.4 billion, has historically made smaller investments, including in Israel’s Shlomo Group, a major car-leasing and financing company, and Dubizzle, a Dubai-based classifieds platform.

More recently, the firm has taken part in larger transactions, including a joint effort with the P.I.F. and Silver Lake Partners to buy Electronic Arts for roughly $55 billion.

Paramount’s investor group for the Warner Bros. Discovery bid also includes sovereign wealth funds from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

The company said in regulatory filings that these foreign investors would forgo governance rights, including board representation, in an effort to mitigate national security concerns and smooth approval by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).

Despite those concessions, analysts say the deal could still face heavy scrutiny. “The only ways to know for sure that your transaction is not covered by CFIUS is, one, don’t have foreign investors or, two, get a letter from CFIUS saying it’s not covered,” said Aaron Bartnick, a former CFIUS official under the Biden administration.

If the acquisition proceeds, Larry Ellison and RedBird would emerge as the controlling shareholders of the restructured media company — a notable shift given Ellison’s long-standing influence in US–Israel political and technological cooperation.

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