Presidents are not supposed to influence the regulators who review major corporate deals, a process traditionally carried out at arm’s length from politicians’ whims.
But with the future of the news and entertainment industries in the balance, Trump, himself a film and TV connoisseur, has broken precedent by placing himself directly in the middle of the sale of Warner Bros Discovery, the biggest media deal of the decade.
And both Netflix and Paramount are paying attention.
“I’ll be involved in that decision,” a tuxedoed Trump told reporters as he posed for pictures on the red carpet of the Kennedy Centre Honours.
Ignoring norms is nothing new for a president who has worked to reshape the relationship between government agencies and the White House.
And the Supreme Court appeared poised to vastly expand the President’s power to fire independent officials at federal agencies, including regulators.
Trump has often relished pitting rivals against each other, from his Apprentice TV boardroom to the West Wing, and so far he is playing coy about which side he favours.
“None of them are particularly great friends of mine,” he told reporters at the White House yesterday. “I want to do what’s right. It’s very important to do what’s right.”
On the red carpet on Monday, the President lavished praise on Sarandos but also cautioned that a Netflix win “could be a problem”.
Trump raised concerns that a deal could create outsize market share for Netflix, mirroring an argument that Paramount is now making publicly.
Then, on Tuesday, the President threw a curveball, slamming Paramount over a 60 Minutes interview with Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, (R-Georgia), that aired on CBS, which is owned by the company.
“They are no better than the old ownership,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post about Paramount Skydance, the Ellison-owned business that absorbed CBS and Paramount from the Redstone family this summer in another major deal.
That deal required approval from the Trump Administration, and Paramount, under the Redstones’ ownership, agreed to pay US$16 million to settle a lawsuit that Trump had brought against 60 Minutes over its editing of an interview last year with then-Vice-President Kamala Harris.
“Since they bought it, 60 Minutes has actually gotten WORSE!” Trump added in his post, referring to Paramount Skydance. (CBS had no response when asked for comment.)
It was not clear if Trump had the Warner Bros sale in mind when he sent his post.
His criticism complicates the broader perception of his relationship with Ellison, whose father, technology mogul Larry Ellison, is a friend of the President.
The Ellisons have appeared in public with Trump in recent months.
David Ellison sat with the President at a UFC match, one of Trump’s favourite pastimes, and later spent US$7.7 billion to buy the league’s broadcast rights.
Paramount is also in talks to distribute a new Rush Hour movie after Trump told Larry Ellison that he was a fan of the franchise.
Asked yesterday about Kushner’s involvement in Paramount’s bid, Trump said he had never spoken about the subject with his son-in-law.
Jeff Shell, president of Paramount Skydance, and George Cheeks, the company’s head of TV, also attended the Kennedy Centre Honours.
The ceremony has a longtime affiliation with CBS, which will air an edited version of the event on December 23. Bari Weiss, editor-in-chief of CBS News, did not attend.
Although Netflix’s offer for Warner Bros Discovery does not include CNN, Paramount has indicated an interest in acquiring the 24-hour news network.
Ellison, asked on CNBC if Trump liked the idea of his owning CNN, played his own version of coy.
“By the way, we’ve had great conversations with the President about this,” Ellison said. “But I think I don’t want to speak for him in any way, shape or form.”
Sarandos, speaking later yesterday at a conference in New York City, volunteered that he had also conducted several conversations with Trump.
“I’ve talked to him many times since the election about the different challenges facing the entertainment industry,” Sarandos said.
He added that the President “understands what we do is we drive a ton of great work in America”.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Written by: Michael M. Grynbaum
Photograph by: Valerie Plesch
©2025 THE NEW YORK TIMES
