Media & D.C. Power Players To Watch In 2025

Over the past 12 months, Elon Musk continued his streak of somehow finding a way into just about every social-political conversation, it seemed, something that was readily apparent in his midyear endorsement of Donald Trump.

As the co-leader of the Department of Government Efficiency, a made-up department designed to identify areas of the federal government to cut, Musk inevitably will be that provocateur once again.

The wild card is ego, as there may be only so much space in the spotlight for the world’s richest man and the world’s most powerful one. After all, Barack Obama’s relentless mocking of Trump at the 2011 White House Correspondents Dinner has been seen as a tipping point that led to the then-The Apprentice host’s first White House bid; Likewise, it was Joe Biden’s diss of Musk at a White House electric-vehicle event that help set off the latter’s migration from left to right.

With Musk posturing for drastic changes ahead, there are other key power players in the media and politics space to watch, some more prominent than others — though that could always change.

Like the SpaceX chief, Joe Rogan, CNN‘s Kaitlan Collins and Boris Sanchez, Charlamagne tha God and UFC boss Dana White have already made some pretty big flexes this past year in terms of reach, scope, influence and, yes, depth. As the renewed war against the Deep State and the media begins, and various titans of industry head to Mar-a-Lago to bend the knee, 2025 will see some new faces and some old names in new roles take center stage.

All will in many ways be defined by the incoming Trump administration, which likely will present new challenges to the news business, broadcasting and other legacy outlets. All will have successes, failures, face-plants and power plays, and all will do it on the biggest stages around.

Mark Thompson

The recent departures of top personalities including Chris Wallace and Alisyn Camerota has ignited anxieties that a round of deeper cuts are to come for CNN, as CEO Mark Thompson integrates linear and digital, the latter long a bright spot amid declining ratings. Kaitlan Collins’ dual role in the coming year as chief White House correspondent and primetime host may be the shape of things to come, but it’s also a signal of the type of aggressive posture the network plans to take in the new administration. Already, CNN.com has been experimenting with a paywall, but Thompson’s professed push has been in video. – TJ

Susie Wiles

The longtime Florida political operative will be the second most powerful person in America, and hence the world, when she becomes the first female White House chief of staff. Wiles has always kept a low profile, and we all know no one can truly keep Trump on the leash, but don’t think she a paper pusher. The daughter of the late NFL player and longtime TV sportscaster Pat Summerall pulled together a near perfect campaign over the past year, despite even the worst efforts of the candidate himself. Wiles now appears to be playing a different game than past Trump top aides: no leaks, no big TV interviews or WaPo profiles, little time even beside Trump at cabinet announcements. Wiles is just working away, insiders say, getting ready to hit the ground running January 20. All of which means the first woman to run Trump’s White House may be the longest-serving chief of staff he’s ever had. – DP

Jorge Ramos

After more 40 years at Univision, the man frequently called “the Walter Cronkite of Latin America” signed off one last time last week with the admission, “I don’t know what I am going to do yet, I will let you all know.” The longtime Noticiero Univision co-anchor added: “I am convinced that real journalists never retire and now this is a time of change. I did what I had to do.” Having announced his exit in September, (with money being at the heart of the departure, sources say), the individualistic Ramos is now a hot commodity for media outlets looking to make some noise and lock horns with Trump 2.0. It might seem that everyone is trying to get in the president-elect’s good graces right now, but wait for when Trump is back in office and the deportation efforts and other MAGA policies kick in. Once that begins, don’t bet on the CAA-represented Ramos staying unemployed or keeping a self-employment strategy secret for long. – DP

Steven Cheung

When Trump dropped by the White House on November 13 for a fireside sit-down with Joe Biden, the former and future POTUS made a point of noting that “politics is tough.” It’s a rare bit of understatement from Trump, but a fact as well. Which is why it makes sense that Steven Cheung, the ex-UFC spokesman, is soon to be the White House Communications Director. Never hesitant to rip his boss’ foes real and imagined a new one, Cheung also has a secret weapon: he’s responsive and upfront with the press. Also, unlike past administration message men and women from both sides of the aisle, the California-born Cheung has direct access to the big guy. A veteran of past MAGA campaigns and Trump 1.0, Cheung knows how to read a room as well as toss the odd verbal grenade in there as well – both of which are going to prove stress points in what it likely going to be a litigious and wild ride for 2.0. – DP

Brendan Carr, Andrew Ferguson and Gail Slater

As media companies signal a new wave of consolidation, three Trump administration figures will have a major say in whether a number of those deals go forward. Carr, the incoming FCC chairman, has already said that a complaint against 60 Minutes for the way it interviewed Kamala Harris should be looked at in the context of the agency’s review of Skydance’s acquisition of Paramount Global, a transaction that, based on current timelines, will be front and center in his initial months. Trump, meanwhile, has touted the willingness of Ferguson (the incoming FTC chair) and Slater (the incoming head of the DOJ’s antitrust division) to take on big tech “censorship.” Yet the feeling among analysts remains that the new administration will be more permissive toward major transactions, even if regulators are more than willing to parrot some of the president’s bash-the-media talking points. There also is the ongoing worry over how media companies, in a quest to improve their marketplace position, will try to get in the good graces with an administration that thrives on attacking legacy news outlets. Carr likely will be “more transparent and rational on M&A,” Morgan Lewis’ Andrew Lipman said recently at the UBS Media and Communications conference. – TJ

Suzanne Scott

The Fox News Media CEO knows revenge is a feast best served with record ratings, a direct line to the Oval Office and a reenergized conservative audience. If anyone thought the internal memos and emails exposed by the explosive Dominion Voting System defamation lawsuit against FNC was going to blow up the low-profile but influential executive’s reign, they should think again. More than six years after being appointed to the top job by the Murdochs and busting the cable news glass ceiling, Scott has proved a survivor who knows how real power works and how to use it — to her rivals’ regret. – DP

Mark Lazarus

The NBCUniversal Media Group chairman will be leading the spinoff of almost all of Comcast’s cable channels, the most prominent among them MSNBC. The announcement coincided with a precipitous post-election drop in the left-leaning network’s viewership and a backlash against the two anchors of Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough and Mike Brzezinski, for their visit with newly elected Trump at Mar-a-Lago after earlier comparing him to a fascist. The network is anticipating a ratings uptick once the new administration is up and running, but the situation is fluid: There is the uncertainty about how the split from the mothership will play out, what with NBC News providing content and correspondents. And there also were reports over the future plans of MSNBC president Rashida Jones, though the network says she is staying. -TJ

John Fetterman

At 6’8”, the senior senator from Pennsylvania towers over most of DC, now both literally and figuratively. Elected in a hard-fought 2022 battle and the first Democratic member of the upper house to sign onto Trump’s Truth Social, the often hoodie- and shorts-clad former small-town mayor and Keystone State lieutenant governor ruffles feathers on both sides of America’s great political divide. Already spotlighted as a 2028 player, the staunch pro-Israel senator and a major Kamala Harris surrogate during the election has called on Joe Biden to pardon convicted felon Trump, and he has declared loud and clear to the GOP that “picking on trans or gay kids is just un-American.” Going into a Senate where the Dems are now the minority, Fetterman and his blunt style of liberal populism could prove a lot more John McCain than Joe Manchin, if you know what we mean. -DP

Bill Owens

The 60 Minutes executive producer will oversee the CBS Evening News, which will undergo an overhaul following the departure of Norah O’Donnell after the inauguration. The network is signaling that the reshaping of the broadcast will bring in some of the 60 Minutes DNA, with appearances from the newsmagazine’s correspondents. New anchors John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois will draw heavily on CBS News correspondents as well as Margaret Brennan from Washington in a revamp that reflects both the budget-conscious realities of legacy media as well as an acknowledgement that the evening newscasts should not be another headline swirl. The choice of Owens also draws on 60 Minutes‘ success and continued influence, even as legacy media all too often gets dismissed. Trump noticed, as was evidenced by his attacks on the program for the way it edited a Harris interview, while the show held firm in refusing his and other Trump backers’ demands that they release a transcript. -TJ

Hakeem Jeffries

The man who would be and could be Speaker is the true leader of the Democratic Party now. A long-overdue new generation of progressive brass, the House minority leader and Leader of the House Democratic Caucus since 2023 holds a boatload of power in his party and among Republicans. Amidst a weaker than expected election result and losing a number of members to Trump’s cabinet and other appointed gigs, Speaker Mike Johnson and the GOP hold a thin majority of five seats. With a vote of 218 needed to get almost any bill passed, a couple of cases of the flu or some special elections that don’t go red and Jeffries can sink or at least stymie portions of the MAGA agenda. It’s a fact he and his rivals on the other side of the aisle and at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue are fully aware of, as they are of the fact he won’t be merely spinning the block the next two years. Representing Brooklyn for more than a decade in DC, Jeffries is looking for a fight and a big win in the 2026 midterms — both of which he just might get. -DP

Ted Cruz

He’s gotten in Twitter fights with Alyssa Milano, railed against various Hollywood movies and suggested that the studios have caved to China. Now, having survived a strong challenge for reelection, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) will be leading a key committee that often touches on all things media: the Senate Commerce Committee. As much as Cruz loves to attack Hollywood, he’s well aware of the attention it brings, and he’s at times taken steps pleasing to media and entertainment CEOs. That includes being a leader in an effort to sideline one of Joe Biden’s FCC nominees, Gigi Sohn, who faced opposition, largely played out behind the scenes, from Comcast and other industry lobbyists for her past stances as a public interest advocate. – TJ