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David Ellison, CEO of Paramount Skydance, dined at the White House Thursday evening at the state dinner held for visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping — but the White House shut out reporters for CNN, the Warner Bros.
Discovery-owned news network Ellison is on the cusp of gaining control over, as well as MS NOW.
Ellison attended the soiree with his wife, Sandra Lynn Ellison, among a guest list of more than 100 government officials and business execs. Ellison’s Paramount is coming down the home stretch in closing a $111 billion takeover of Warner Bros., after reaching a settlement with 12 Democratic state attorneys general this week. (The judge in the case is still reviewing the proposed settlement, which does not require major concessions from Paramount.) The Paramount-WBD deal was approved by Trump’s Justice Department earlier this year without any conditions.
Also attending the state dinner were tech bigwigs including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Apple chairman Tim Cook, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Meta chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Microsoft chairman and CEO Satya Nadella, and Elon Musk.
Other guests included Fox News’ Bret Baier, Laura Ingraham and Jesse Watters; Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy and his wife, Cheryl Hines; and U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and his wife, Jane Sullivan Roberts.
According to CNN, the White House denied two of its staffers from covering Xi’s arrival back at the White House for the dinner after “trying to tell the network which type of journalists could cover the event.” A “press wrangler” barred a CNN producer and reporter from accessing the event and “told them to ‘talk to’ White House Communications Director Steven Cheung,” CNN reported. Staffers from MS NOW also were prevented from covering the Chinese president’s arrival.
The White House’s blocking of CNN and MS NOW from covering the state dinner came after Donald Trump banned the networks (and Politico) from White House events. The news outlets sued, and a judge granted a temporary restraining order requiring the White House to restore their access. The White House complied and reissued press passes to staffers for the outlets Thursday morning — but then denied the networks the ability to cover the dinner.
Trump is known to be friendly with both David Ellison and his father, Oracle founder and mega-billionaire Larry Ellison. This April, David Ellison in threw a dinner party in Washington, D.C., “honoring” Trump and the First Amendment, which was attended by CBS News execs and journalists.
On the menu for Thursday’s dinner, per the White House: A first course of a “silky-smooth velouté” made of sweet yellow squash, followed by sesame-crusted sea bass, accompanied by braised baby bok choy and roasted garden eggplant. For dessert was a “smooth vanilla crémeux” with a “vibrant sour cherry confit center” atop a “rich walnut frangipane,” and ice cream made with “harvested White House honey.”
Performances during the dinner were headlined by Christopher Macchio, a classically trained tenor who performed at Trump’s 2025 presidential inauguration, along with military musicians from the U.S. Marines Corps and the U.S. Army.
Here’s the full guest list for the dinner, which was released by the White House:
- President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump
- President Xi Jinping and Madame Peng Liyuan
- Vice President JD Vance and Second Lady Usha Vance
- Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his spouse, Jeanette Rubio
- Susie Wiles, White House chief of staff
- U.S. Ambassador to China David Perdue and his spouse, Bonnie Perdue
- Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and his spouse, John Freeman
- Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth
- Jamieson Greer, United States trade representative, and his spouse, Marlo Greer
- Cai Qi, chief of staff to Xi
- Wang Yi, CPC Political Bureau Central Committee member
- He Lifeng, China’s vice premier of State Council
- Zheng Shanjie, chairman of China’s National Development and Reform Commission
- Wang Wentao, China’s minister of commerce
- Ma Zhaoxu, China’s executive vice foreign minister
- Xie Feng, Chinese ambassador to the United States, and his spouse, Wang Dan
- Ivanka Trump and her daughter, Arabella Kushner
- Eric Trump and his spouse, Lara Trump
- Tiffany Trump and her spouse, Michael Boulos
- Viktor Knavs, father of Melania Trump
- Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, and his spouse, Lori Huang
- Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta
- Lisa Su, CEO of Advanced Micro Devices, and her spouse, Daniel Lin
- Tim Cook, executive chairman of the board of Apple
- John F.W. Rogers, executive vice president of Goldman Sachs
- Lynn Martin, president of the New York Stock Exchange
- Linda Mills, president of New York University
- Eric Yuan, CEO of Zoom
- Tang Fangyu, director of the Central Policy Research Office of the CPC Central Committee
- Lan Fo’an, China’s Minister of Finance
- Zhou Hongxu, deputy director of the General Office of the CPC Central Committee
- Lyu Luhua, secretary to Xi
- Hong Lei, Chinese assistant foreign minister
- Cai Wei, Chinese assistant foreign minister
- Mao Ning, director general of China’s Department of Press, Communication and Public Diplomacy
- Zhang Quan, secretary to Peng
- Zhang Yongchao, deputy director general of China’s Department of North American and Oceanian Affairs
- Kelly Ortberg, CEO of Boeing
- Larry Fink, CEO of Blackrock
- Stephen Schwarzman, CEO of Blackstone
- Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI
- Greg Brockman, president and co-founder of OpenAI, and his wife, Anna Brockman
- Dr. Miriam Adelson, controlling shareholder of Las Vegas Sands
- Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google/Alphabet, and his partner, Gerelyn Gilbert-Soto
- Satya Nadella, chairman and CEO of Microsoft
- Jim Taiclet, president and CEO of Lockheed Martin
- Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google
- Larry Culp, CEO of GE Aerospace
- Sanjay Mehrotra, CEO of Micron, and his spouse, Sangeeta Mehrota
- Cristiano Amon, CEO of Qualcomm
- Jeff Bezos, chairman of Amazon, and his spouse, Lauren Sanchez-Bezos
- Jeff Yass, co-founder of Susquehanna International Group
- Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan Chase
- Michael Dell, CEO of Dell Technologies, and his spouse, Susan Dell
- Mary Barra, CEO of General Motors, and her spouse, Anthony Barra
- David Solomon, CEO of Goldman Sachs
- Jane Fraser, CEO of Citigroup
- Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla
- Darren Woods, CEO of ExxonMobil, and his spouse, Kathy Woods
- Chief Justice John Roberts of the U.S. Supreme Court, and his spouse, Jane Sullivan Roberts
- Justice Amy Coney Barrett of the U.S. Supreme Court, and her spouse, Jesse Barrett
- Justice Brett Kavanaugh of the U.S. Supreme Court, and his spouse, Ashley Estes
- Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.), and his spouse, Kelly Johnson
- Bret Baier, Fox News host, and his spouse, Amy Baier
- Laura Ingraham, Fox News host
- Rep. Richard McCormick (R-Ga.)
- Jesse Watters, Fox News host, and his spouse, Emma Watters
- David Ellison, CEO of Paramount Skydance, and his spouse, Sandra Lynn Ellison
- Kevin Warsh, chairman of the Federal Reserve, and his spouse, Jane Lauder
- Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and his spouse, Allison Lutnick
- John Ratcliffe, director of the Central Intelligence Agency, and his spouse, Michelle Ratcliffe
- Steve Witkoff, U.S. special envoy to Middle East
- Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff, and his spouse, Katie Miller
- Dan Scavino, White House deputy chief of staff, and his spouse, Erin Scavino
- Todd Blanche, attorney general of the United States, and his spouse, Kristine Blanche
- Meredith O’Rourke, national finance director for Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign
- Energy Secretary Chris Wright
- Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy and his spouse, Cheryl Hines
- Education Secretary Linda McMahon
- Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and his spouse, Kathryn Burgum
- Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and his spouse, Rachel Campos-Duffy
- Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget
- Lee Zeldin, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency
- Acting Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling
- Brad Gerstner, CEO of Altimeter, and his fiancé, Katie Simpson
- Albert Bourla, CEO of Pfizer
- David Sacks, co-chair of the President’s Council of Advisers on Science and Technology
- Small Business Administrator Kelly Loeffler and her spouse, Jeff Sprecher
- Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.)
- Sen. Steven Daines (R-Mont.)
- Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
- Jay Clayton, director of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence
- Bernard Arnault, CEO of LVMH, and his son, Alexandre Arnault
- Ryan McInerey, CEO of Visa
- Michael Miebach, CEO of Mastercard
