Paramount paid $16 million to settle Trump's 60 Minutes lawsuit, cancelled Colbert's show, killed DEI, and laid off 2,000 workers to get their merger approved.
Now Cory Booker wants to rip that deal apart the moment Democrats return to power.
He said it out loud on national television – and every CEO in America needs to hear it.
The Threat Booker Made on Morning Joe
Thursday on Morning Joe, Booker announced legislation he's calling the CLEAN Act.
The pitch: give a future Democrat administration the power to "unravel" media mergers the Trump administration approved.
His target list includes the $8 billion Paramount-Skydance deal – the one that cost 2,000 Americans their jobs at CBS, MTV, Nickelodeon, and Paramount Pictures last fall.
Booker's argument is that Trump's FCC approved mergers based on loyalty, not law.
"The way people are going about getting mergers approved now has nothing to do with the enforcement of antitrust law," he told co-host Jonathan Lemire. "It is just by how much you can dote on Donald Trump."
https://twitter.com/CoryBooker/status/2049247290628464687?s=20
Then he issued a warning no senator has delivered quite so directly.
"Preserve Documents"
Booker told executives – on national television – to start saving paperwork.
"I want everybody that we've actually written letters to tell everybody preserve documents," he said. "Because we are going to make sure that we examine all of the paper trail."
Then came the threat: "If you entered into corrupt agreements with Donald Trump or agreements against the law and public interest, we're going to unwind your merger."
Think about what that means in practice.
Paramount went through every required federal review.
The FCC approved the deal 2-1 – with its lone Democratic commissioner voting no.
The SEC and European Commission signed off months earlier.
Every required agency completed its review.
None of that matters to Booker.
He's already decided the process was corrupt and the outcome is illegitimate.
What Democrats Are Actually Proposing
Paramount cancelled Colbert's show.
Eliminated DEI. Laid off 2,000 workers.
Made every concession federal regulators required to get that merger across the finish line.
Now a United States senator is standing on television telling them it still wasn't enough – because he gets to judge whether the process was sufficiently pure after the fact.
That has never been how American business works.
https://twitter.com/CoryBooker/status/2049862624540611004?s=20
Companies make billion-dollar decisions based on the assumption that regulatory approval means something. Booker wants to eliminate that assumption entirely.
Under his framework, every major merger approved during Trump's presidency is now provisional – valid only until Democrats win the next election and decide which deals they want to kill.
That's not antitrust reform.
That's retroactive political punishment.
The Party That Lectures America About Democracy
These are the same people who spent four years warning you that Trump was the threat to norms, institutions, and the rule of law.
The White House issued an executive order in January 2025 specifically to end what Trump called the Democrats' weaponization of the federal government against political enemies.
Cory Booker just went on television and announced the Democrat Party's plan to weaponize the federal government against political enemies.
He called the Trump administration a "corrupt regime."
He told corporations to preserve documents.
He said he's coming for every deal he personally decides was tainted.
That's not a senator doing oversight.
That's a senator announcing a purge.
Save this clip.
Because in two years – when Democrats are back on the Sunday shows explaining how Republicans are destroying institutional trust – somebody needs to press play.
Sources:
- Pam Key, "Booker: Dems 'Will Unravel' Media Mergers that 'Corrupt' Trump Admin Approved," Breitbart, April 30, 2026.
- "Booker Introduces Legislation to Review and Unwind Anticompetitive Corporate Mergers," U.S. Senator Cory Booker press release, April 29, 2026.
- "FCC Approves Paramount-Skydance Deal After Anti-DEI Pledges," Variety, July 24, 2025.
- "Paramount to Cut 2,000 Jobs Following $8B Skydance Merger," Invezz, October 29, 2025.
- "Ending the Weaponization of the Federal Government," White House Executive Order, January 2025.