BREAKING: TRUMP CELEBRATES 80TH BIRTHDAY WITH BILLIONAIRE DAVID ELLISON AFTER DOJ CLEARS PATH FOR ONE-MAN MEDIA EMPIRE 

For more than a year, this page has been tracking the relationship between Donald Trump and David Ellison, the 43-year-old technology heir and Paramount Sky dance CEO whose ambitions to control American media are now closer to reality than ever.

Tonight, at a White House spectacle costing more than $60 million, UFC chief Dana White escorted an 80-year-old Trump to the ring on the South Lawn. Ellison was right there with him, along with another familiar face: Mark Zuckerberg, seated ringside. The oligarchs were all together for the party.

Ellison had plenty to celebrate. On Friday, the Trump Justice Department approved Paramount's staggering $111 billion merger with Warner Bros. Discovery without requiring a single divestiture or concession. Not one.

Think about what Ellison will soon control: two Hollywood film studios, HBO Max, CBS News, and CNN. He already fired Stephen Colbert and installed Bari Weiss to reshape CBS News in a direction critics call MAGA-friendly. Now CNN is next.

This didn't happen by accident. Ellison threw Trump a private dinner in April with acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, Deputy White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio all in attendance. The same Justice Department reviewing his merger. The same DOJ that just waved it through.

Senator Elizabeth Warren said it plainly: "This is terrible news for every American who doesn't want Trump-aligned billionaires to control what they watch and how much they pay."

This is what media capture looks like in real time. This page has been telling you it was coming. The gladiators performed tonight for an 80-year-old man who would rather be Caesar than a president.

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