According to CNN, Ted Turner, the entrepreneur who launched CNN in 1980 and transformed American television news, died at his home on Wednesday, May 6, at the age of 87. Trump praised him as one of broadcasting’s all-time greats while lamenting that CNN had strayed from its founder’s vision.
Turner Enterprises confirmed he passed away peacefully. No cause of death was disclosed; Turner had been living with Lewy body dementia, a progressive neurological disease he disclosed publicly in 2018, and had been hospitalized for pneumonia in 2025.
President Donald Trump paid tribute the same morning on his Truth Social platform. “Ted Truner, one of the Greats of All Time, just died,” Trump wrote. “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.”
Trump added: “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!”
Turner launched CNN on June 1, 1980, from a converted television studio in Atlanta, founding what became the template for round-the-clock television journalism. He later sold the network to Time Warner. In recent years he had largely withdrawn from public life.
Success
You are now signed up for our newsletter
Success
Check your email to complete sign up
By Tian Qin, Vision Times
