In December 2025, the Kennedy Center's annual honors gala, hosted by Trump and feting Sylvester Stallone, Kiss, and Gloria Gaynor, drew the usual rich and famous. ProPublica found two quieter guests whose presence mattered more: the federal regulators who had just approved an $8 billion merger for the gala's broadcast sponsor.
Five months earlier, FCC Commissioner Olivia Trusty cast a decisive vote approving Paramount's merger with Skydance Media. At the gala, she and a guest sat on tickets gifted to her by Paramount worth more than $12,000, according to ethics disclosure records ProPublica obtained. FCC Chair Brendan Carr, who also voted to approve the merger, watched with his wife from a private skybox alongside Paramount CEO David Ellison and other Paramount and CBS executives; such seats sold for $125,000 apiece under Kennedy Center guidelines. Whether Paramount gifted Carr the seats is not yet public, because his financial disclosure for the year has not been released.
The merger was not a routine matter. Paramount's approval traveled through an FCC whose chair had threatened broadcasters over content, and the combined company's leadership promptly moved to reshape CBS News in the administration's favor. Regulators accepting five-figure hospitality from the company whose $8 billion deal they had just blessed is the sort of conduct ethics rules exist to prevent, whatever the disclosure forms ultimately show. Rep. Jamie Raskin expanded his investigation into political interference at CBS News after the report (see Press Freedom Groups Demand Paramount Records Over Reports Larry Ellison Discussed Firing CNN Anchors Trump Dislikes and Trump's FCC Chairman Demands 'Pro-America Programming,' Declares 'Fake News' Loses Legal Protections, and Moves to Eliminate Media Ownership Caps).