Reza Aslan: CNN president Jeff Zucker canceled my Believer show to appease Trump

The Daily Beast

The religious scholar's "spiritual travel series" Believer exploring religious traditions around the world premiered in March 2017. In June 2017, after President Trump sent a tweet calling for “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States” in wake of the London Bridge attack, Aslan tweeted: “This piece of sh*t is not just an embarrassment to America and a stain on the presidency. He’s an embarrassment to humankind.” Aslan was hit with a right-wing backlash, so he issued an apology. Four days later, Believer was canceled. "And the quote that was delivered to me (from Zucker) was, 'I have no choice in the matter. I gotta get rid of your boy,'" Aslan tells The Daily Beast. "I was flabbergasted. It just didn’t make sense to accept an apology, wait four days, and then in the middle of one of the biggest news days of the year to just simply cancel it." Aslan says Zucker was worried that Trump would interfere with the AT&T merger and wouldn't come on CNN anymore.