President Donald Trump responded to CNN founder Ted Turner’s death on Wednesday with a statement trashing the network and memorializing “one of the Greats of Broadcast History, and a friend of mine.”

“Ted Turner, one of the Greats of All Time, just died,” wrote Trump in a Truth Social post after Turner passed away at the age of 87. “He founded CNN, sold it, and was personally devastated by the Deal because the new ownership took CNN, his ‘baby,’ and destroyed it. It became woke, and everything that he is not all about.”

The president continued, “Maybe the new buyers, wonderful people, will be able to bring it back to its former credibility and glory. Regardless, however, one of the Greats of Broadcast History, and a friend of mine. Whenever I needed him, he was there, always willing to fight for a good cause! President DONALD J. TRUMP.”

Turner revealed in 2018 that he had been diagnosed with Lewy body dementia, and in 2025, he was hospitalized with pneumonia.

“Ted was an intensely involved and committed leader, intrepid, fearless and always willing to back a hunch and trust his own judgement,” said CNN Worldwide chairman and CEO Mark Thompson in a statement, Wednesday. “He was and always will be the presiding spirit of CNN. Ted is the giant on whose shoulders we stand, and we will all take a moment today to recognize him and his impact on our lives and the world.”

CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer also delivered a eulogy for Turner on Wednesday’s The Situation Room, recalling his emotional last meeting with the network’s founder.

“I saw him a few months ago in Atlanta, and we had lunch, and it was just so painful to see how he had deteriorated his health over the years because a while earlier, I went out to Montana, spent some time with him at his ranch out there, and it was a very different kind of Ted Turner at that time,” said Blitzer. “But it was just painful and we’re going to miss him. I’m going to miss him a lot personally because of all the wonderful things that he did.”

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