Ted Turner, the famed media mogul who founded CNN, Turner Broadcasting, TBS, TNT, Turner Classic Movies and the Goodwill Games, and owned everything from the Atlanta Braves to his own America’s Cup team to World Championship Wrestling, passed away on Wednesday at the age of 87.
Turner and Donald Trump were known throughout the 1980s as a pair of wealthy moguls who had high media profiles. And upon Turner’s passing, the president had kind words, which isn’t always the case when a famous person dies.
“Ted Turner, one of the Greats of All Time, just died,” Trump said on Truth Social shortly after the news broke. “He founded CNN, sold it, and was personally devastated by the Deal because the new ownership took CNN, his “baby,” and destroyed it. It became woke, and everything that he is not all about. Maybe the new buyers, wonderful people, will be able to bring it back to its former credibility and glory. Regardless, however, one of the Greats of Broadcast History, and a friend of mine. Whenever I needed him, he was there, always willing to fight for a good cause!”
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Turner, in recent years, had been diagnosed with Lewy-Body Dementia, and had not been much of a public figure during most of the time that Trump has been in politics.
Quite a few people have questioned the accuracy of Trump’s history when it comes to Turner. Turner did indeed lose control of CNN as a result of a series of mergers, when he sold his media company to Warner Bros., which was itself purchased a few years later by AOL. And he was sometimes outspoken about changes to CNN after he was no longer in control.
However, complaining about “wokeness” was never quite Turner’s beef, as he was actually fairly liberal by billionaire standards, especially for a man born in 1938 who, despite being born in Ohio, lived most of his life in the South.
Politico reporter Josh Gerstein pointed that out:
Bizarre Trump suggestion that Ted Turner was anti-woke. While he initially had “bad boy” image, he supported rapprochement with USSR/Russia (Goodwill games), UN, and devoted later years to envirocauses & fighting climate change. CNN also sought to avoid being labeled as American pic.twitter.com/E4xtgPdhHW
— Josh Gerstein (@joshgerstein) May 6, 2026
Photo courtesy of an X screenshot.
