Why Donald Trump is more bothered by the Warner Bros. buyout than he’s letting on
Donald Trump claims to have little knowledge of the planned buyout of media giant Warner Bros, despite his son-in-law’s involvement in a hostile bid after a deal was struck with Netflix. Is there more to his involvement than he’s letting on?
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In brief…
- Donald Trump says he has “never spoken” to his son-in-law Jared Kushner about a $100 billion hostile takeover bid made by Paramount to purchase Warner Bros.
- The News Agents believe the president is playing dumb, as having a family member involved in such a huge media company would allow him to influence how America is portrayed in entertainment, and what and how news is reported.
- Netflix, they say, is desperate to expand its streaming dominance, having become obsolete once in its history, and fear setting in that could happen again.
What’s the story?
Donald Trump may appear not to care about the multi-billion buyout of Warner Bros, but there’s a good chance he’s more invested in the outcome than he’d like everyone to believe.
The entertainment powerhouse, and one of the biggest production companies in the world, was set to be purchased by streamer Netflix in a $72 billion (£54 bn) deal. The resulting conglomerate he said, "could be a bit of a problem".
But, a hostile takeover bid from Paramount followed, who swept in after the Netflix deal had been agreed with an eye-watering $108.4 billion (£81.41 bn) bid.
When asked about this development – and the involvement of his son-in-law Jared Kushner in the Paramount bid – he simply said he had "never spoken" to him about it.
The president may be playing down what he knows about the goings-on, but The News Agents believe there are obvious benefits for Trump to be involved in the resulting behemoth any deal produces.
The two Trump benefits: Money and power
There's more political power in involvement with the companies which own huge franchises such as Stranger Things and Harry Potter than it might initially appear.
"Donald Trump wants to control content," says Jon Sopel.
"He wants to know the sort of movies that are being made. He loves Sylvester Stallone, and he loves action movies. He wants America looking great in movies.
"He doesn't want self doubt or movies about slavery and misery. He wants it to be a projection of his vision of what America looks like."
Trump has already made his presence felt in the US news media since returning to The White House – and not only through repeated legal threats.
He directly pressured news channel CBS to appoint a “non-woke” head of news, which Lewis Goodall describes as yet another example of US media “twisting themselves around the Trump content machine”.
And that twisting could be even more extreme if he has any involvement in Warner Bros, which owns CNN – one of his most disliked news outlets, and one of the most-targeted in his rants against the mainstream media.
"CNN has a slightly more liberal bent," says Jon.
"It gives Trump a hard wrap, but it was also questioning of Biden and is a serious news organisation. "
David Ellison, CEO of Paramount, has said he would want to refocus CNN if the takeover goes ahead to serve the 70% of Americans he says are in the middle of the political spectrum – suggesting its output is politically biased.
Additionally, if a family member (Kushner) is part of this gigantic amalgamation, there will be a more direct benefit for Trump's family.
"You can see that Donald Trump calculates – not only how maybe this makes his family richer if Jared Kushner is involved, but how he will gain political leverage over his enemies," Jon adds.
Why is Netflix so desperate to own Warner Bros?
For now, Netflix is still set to take control of Warners – the hostile Paramount bid hasn't been approved, and no political action has been taken to prevent such an enormous and influential media organisation being formed.
But why does Netflix, a market leader and media buzzword for several years now, need to grow in this way?
"Netflix is an extraordinary 21st Century success story, but not so long ago it was sending out DVDs in the mail," says Lewis.
"Here it is now on the verge, potentially, of buying one of the oldest, most illustrious Hollywood titans in the form of Warner Bros."
And despite Netflix’s huge ongoing success (season five of Stranger Things drawing tens of millions of viewers in the first few days of its release), Lewis says it still feels the fear of becoming obsolete once again.
"Gen Z in particular, are streaming less," he adds.
"They are much more attuned to YouTube and to TikTok and social media. Attention spans are less so Netflix is keen to get the intellectual property that you get with Warner Bros – which includes a back catalogue of lots of different films, the Harry Potter franchise and all this other stuff as well.
"By all accounts, Netflix is worried that, although they seem cutting edge right now, in a not too distant future, it might not be."