President Donald Trump’s fixation on the CBS programming lineup continued when he took aim at Gayle King, claiming he believed the tenured journalist should have “stayed with her belief in TRUMP.” Now, King has finally responded to the president in a very measured and calm way.
Trump took to Truth Social, where he linked a New York Post article alleging CBS has a left-wing bias. He suggested that, with CBS’s parent company Paramount under new ownership, there’s a strong possibility that King’s morning show might be cancelled. There’s precedent for this belief, considering the new owners of Paramount have already shown — through the lawsuit payout — that they’re more than willing to appease Trump if that’s what it takes to protect their business.
Donald Trump took to Truth Social with some remarks about Gayle King. (📸: @gettyimages) ✍🏾: #TSRStaffLG pic.twitter.com/sJzwbiZetQ
— TheShadeRoom (@TheShadeRoom) August 5, 2025
Trump has seemingly taken that as a green light to target everyone on their networks who criticises his presidency. Stephen Colbert and the creators of South Park have already shown they’re not interested in rolling over for him, responding in aggressive and dismissive ways. King, on the other hand, chose a different approach in how to deal with Trump.
When approached by TMZ to comment on the latest Trump tirade on Truth Social, King, 70, responded that she plans to continue doing her job the best way she knows how. She added, “There’s a long list of people. I’m in a group now with Bruce Springsteen, Taylor Swift, Stephen Colbert.” King simply concluded, “I’m sorry he feels that way.”
Trump has been gloating about Stephen Colbert’s show getting cancelled but has wisely avoided explicitly taking credit for it. His relationship with Paramount, however, appears to still be ongoing. He alleged, via his social media platform, that beyond the $16 million settlement he received, there’s also an additional deal with the media company allowing him to publish public service announcements from his administration across their various networks.
According to The Daily Beast, this isn’t Trump’s first run-in with King. During his reelection bid in 2020, Trump made the repeatedly disproven claim that he is “the least” racist person in the room. King famously quipped, “Who else was in the room?” Since then, Trump has seemingly been antagonistic toward the reporter.
Trump’s claim that King is some sort of bastion of left-wing politics is undermined by her close relationship with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Even as criticism continues to mount against Bezos — from calls for him to pay more taxes, to backlash over renting out the entire city of Venice, to questions about flying his friends to space — King has not only stood by the technocrat but actively participated in his shenanigans. This appears to be yet another case of Trump expecting to be beyond reproach and criticism.
As for the likelihood of King’s show surviving — we’ll have to wait and see. The realities of network television are more complex than just the partisan bias of a particular host affecting ratings. More viewers are shifting to digital alternatives like YouTube, and ultimately, it’s up to CBS to figure out how to transition to those platforms in a profitable way.
Published: Aug 6, 2025 08:03 am