Where is Jim Acosta? Why he's not on CNN and where he's going next

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Trump snaps at Jim Acosta during his first term: 'This is not happy talk'

During his first term, President Donald Trump repeatedly clashed with Jim Acosta and said CNN had the "worst record in the history of broadcasting."

GeoBeats

After a 20-year long career at CNN, news anchor Jim Acosta and longtime critic of President Donald Trump announced he is leaving the network.

CNN announced last week — just as Trump began his second term — that it was shuffling its daytime lineup to move Wolf Blitzer and Pamela Brown into Acosta’s 10 a.m. time slot and they offered Acosta a job at midnight, including relocating him to Los Angeles, where his show would air at 9 p.m., and also simulcast the program on CNN International.

Acosta, 53, announced his departure on Tuesday at the end of his CNN show, "after giving all of this some careful consideration and weighing an alternative time slot CNN offered me, I have decided to move on." While signing off, he said  “don’t give in to the lies. Don’t give in to the fear. Hold on to the truth. And to hope.”

Just prior to Acosta's announcement, Trump took to his Truth Social account to post about the rumors of the news anchor leaving and claiming it was good news, "Jim Acosta, one of the worst and most dishonest reporters in journalistic history." Adding "Jim is a major loser who will fail no matter where he ends up."

"Jim has had a long, distinguished nearly 20-year career at CNN, with a track record of standing up to authority, for the First Amendment and for our journalistic freedoms," the network said in a statement. "We want to thank him for the dedication and commitment he's brought to his reporting and wish him the very best in the future."

The rift between Acosta and Trump made headlines in 2018, during Trump's first term, when the White House briefly suspended Acosta's press pass after a dust-up that involved the President saying “that’s enough” and an aide attempting to take away Acosta’s microphone.

Why did Jim Acosta leave CNN?

CNN has shifted much of its programming lineup, bumping hosts such as Jake Tapper and Wolf Blitzer into different timeslots as the company cuts about 200 TV positions, or 6% of its workforce, according to CNN's own reporting.

Acosta was also being moved from his 10 a.m. slot to the midnight shift with a location move to Los Angeles, prompting the anchor's decision to decline and leave the network.

Where is Jim Acosta going next?

Acosta took to Substack and his social media account X on Tuesday to announce his last day at CNN and said "I want to jump on Substack Live, here for a moment and say welcome to my new venture. I'm gong independent, at least for now." He said it was just the beginning on this new platform Substack to talk about "the day's news" and "about politics."

What is Substack?

Substack is an American online platform, founded in 2017, that allows writers, journalists, and content creators to publish newsletters and earn money from their work.

Acosta follows other reporters such as Taylor Lorenz and Jennifer Rubin, which recently left the Washington Post, and moved over to Substack. Some other reporters such as Matt Taibbi and Seymour Hersh also made the move.