Someone Flew a Banner Over Paramount Studios Calling Its CEO ‘Trump’s B*tch’

03 Sep 2026, 23:40 · Thought Catalog

Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

Updated 1 minute ago, September 3, 2026

The stunt landed over the studio gates just as a group calling itself Neighbors for Strong Communities was gathering outside to warn about what happens if Paramount pulls out of California. Employees on the lot pulled out their phones to shoot the plane, and one was overheard saying the attorneys general’s case was “about antitrust, not about politics.”

A protest banner towed by a plane crosses the sky above Paramount Studios in Los Angeles on September 3, 2026, as part of a Neighbors Against Mergers demonstration. Photo by Vivien Killilea / Getty Images.

The merger it’s protesting, Paramount’s $111 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, is stuck. A 12-state antitrust lawsuit led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta is set for trial in March 2027 unless the sides settle.

The Paramount–Skydance water tower stands against the Los Angeles skyline and the Hollywood Hills on July 13, 2026, the day twelve state attorneys general filed suit to block the studio’s proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. Photo by Justin Sullivan / Getty Images.

CEO David Ellison has said he’ll move the studio out of state if the deal doesn’t close by Oct. 1, the day Paramount starts owing a $7 million-per-day ticking fee to Warner Bros. investors.

Down on the sidewalk, spokespeople for the Block the Merger coalition were thanking state AGs for holding firm against what the group calls Paramount “blackmail.” Speakers included Committee for the First Amendment member Elyssa Phillips, Free Press co-CEO Jessica J. González, and Burbank City Council members Konstantine Anthony and Nikki Perez. A rep for the campaign said they weren’t behind the plane. Paramount declined to comment to Variety.

A plane tows a banner reading “Ellison Is Trump’s B!tch!” above Los Angeles on September 3, 2026, as part of a Neighbors Against Mergers demonstration targeting Paramount Studios. Photo by Vivien Killilea / Getty Images.

The Trump connection runs through the family. The president is friendly with both David Ellison and his father, Oracle founder Larry Ellison, and this past April David threw a D.C. dinner party “honoring” Trump and the First Amendment, attended by CBS News executives and editor in chief Bari Weiss. At July’s White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, Trump joked that Ellison had told him next year’s event would be renamed “the Trump White House Correspondents’ Dinner.”

In a New York Times op-ed last month, Ellison wrote that the Bonta suit isn’t really about market share but about “whether I can be trusted as a steward of Warner’s CNN,” and pledged that CNN and CBS News journalists “will continue to answer to the facts and to all the people they serve, not to any party or cause.”

At Westwood’s Village Theatre on May 6, 2026, Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison appeared for the premiere of “Billie Eilish – Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour.” Photo by Chris Delmas / AFP via Getty Images.

A shareholder lawsuit filed earlier this summer alleges the Ellisons cut an “illegal” deal with Trump to secure federal approval of the takeover, including a promise that CNN anchors Trump dislikes would be fired. Paramount says “no commitments from either David or Larry Ellison have been made to any government body, State AG, or federal agency regarding the future of CNN or any other news property.”

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