THE NEW YORK TIMES: Trump stands in middle as Netflix and Paramount vie for megadeal Warner Brothers takeover

Ted Sarandos, the co-CEO of Netflix, made a stealthy visit to the Oval Office in November, chatting with President Donald Trump as his company prepared an audacious bid to buy Warner Bros and HBO. It went well enough that Mr Trump was soon praising Mr Sarandos as “fantastic” and comparing him with legendary Hollywood mogul Louis B. Mayer.

On Sunday night, David Ellison, the chair of Paramount Skydance, which is bidding against Netflix, had his chance to make his case face-to-face. Mr Ellison was spotted in the presidential box with Mr Trump at the Kennedy Center Honours ceremony in Washington.

Hours later, Mr Ellison unveiled a hostile bid to block Netflix’s acquisition — and, in the fine print, revealed his version of a trump card: A private equity firm founded by Jared Kushner, Mr Trump’s son-in-law, is on board as an investor in the deal.

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, Mr 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 Mr Trump told reporters as he posed for pictures on the red carpet of the Kennedy Center Honours on Sunday.

Ignoring norms is nothing new for a President who has worked to reshape the relationship between government agencies and the White House, and Monday, the Supreme Court appeared poised to vastly expand the President’s power to fire independent officials at federal agencies, including regulators.

Mr 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 on Monday. “I want to do what’s right. It’s very important to do what’s right.”

On the red carpet Sunday, the President lavished praise on Mr Sarandos but also cautioned that a Netflix win “could be a problem.” Mr Trump raised concerns that a deal could create outsize market share for Netflix, mirroring an argument that Paramount is now making publicly.

Then, on Monday morning, local time, the President threw a curveball, slamming Paramount over a 60 Minutes interview with Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, that aired Sunday on CBS, which is owned by the company.

“They are no better than the old ownership,” Mr 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 $US16 million ($24m) to settle a lawsuit that Mr 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!” Mr Trump added in his post, referring to Paramount Skydance. (CBS had no response when asked for comment.)

It was not clear if Mr Trump had the Warner Bros. sale in mind when he sent his post. But his criticism complicates the broader perception of his relationship with Mr Ellison, whose father, technology mogul Larry Ellison, is a friend of the president.

The Ellisons have appeared in public with Mr Trump in recent months. David Ellison sat with the president at a UFC match, one of Mr Trump’s favourite pastimes, and later spent $US7.7 billion to buy the league’s broadcast rights. Paramount is also in talks to distribute a new Rush Hour movie after Mr Trump told Larry Ellison that he was a fan of the franchise.

Asked Monday about Mr Kushner’s involvement in Paramount’s bid, Mr 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 Center 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 on Monday 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,” Mr Ellison said. “But I think I don’t want to speak for him in any way, shape or form.”

Mr Sarandos, speaking later Monday at a conference in New York City, volunteered that he had also conducted several conversations with Mr Trump.

“I’ve talked to him many times since the election about the different challenges facing the entertainment industry,” Mr Sarandos said, adding 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.

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