Former President Donald Trump wasted no time in mocking CNN after the network shut down its ill-fated and short-lived streaming service, which drew only about 150,000 subscribers — comparing it to an “empty desert.”
“Congratulations to CNN+ on their decision to immediately FOLD for a lack of ratings, or viewers in any way, shape, or form,” the 45th president said in a statement Thursday, The Hill reported.
“It was like an empty desert out there despite spending hundreds of millions of dollars and the hiring of low-rated Chris Wallace, a man who tried so hard to be his father, Mike, but lacked the talent and whatever else is necessary to be a star,” Trump continued in his scathing statement against the news outlet he has long attacked.
“In any event, it’s just one more piece of CNN and Fake News that we don’t have to bother with anymore!”
The former POTUS made his remarks shortly after the shocking announcement that CNN+ would be shutting down operations less than a month after it launched.
One insider estimated that CNN spent $300 million launching and between $100 million and $200 million advertising the service.
Chris Licht, CNN’s newly installed CEO, who replaced the disgraced Jeff Zucker, broke the news to staffers at a noon meeting Thursday in New York.
Network insiders were horrified to learn that all junior staffers at the streaming service were let go. The roughly 300 were offered six months’ severance as well as first dibs on job opportunities within CNN, according to sources.
CNN+’s big-ticket acquisitions, including ex-Fox News star Wallace and ex-MSNBC reporter Kasie Hunt, are expected to be reassigned inside the company or to other platforms in the Warner Bros. Discovery media empire.