Trump warns Netflix merger with Warner Bros. Discovery would create ‘dominant cultural gatekeeper’

by WorldTribune Staff / 247 Real News January 12, 2026

President Donald Trump on Monday urged federal regulators to stop Netflix’s proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery.

The president warned that the deal would concentrate unprecedented cultural power in a single corporation.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump called on authorities to “STOP THE NETFLIX MERGER WITH WB,” linking to an op-ed outlining concerns that the transaction would reshape the American entertainment industry and weaken competition.

Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) last month agreed to sell its streaming and studio business to Netflix for $72 billion. The proposed deal was the result of a sale process in which Paramount was bidding for all of WBD’s assets, including its portfolio of cable TV channels, known as Discovery Global.

As part of the Netflix deal, Warner Bros. Discovery plans to separate Discovery Global into its own publicly traded entity.

The proposed deal would combine Netflix, the world’s largest streaming platform, with WBD, which owns major franchises including HBO, DC Comics, Harry Potter, and Game of Thrones, as well as one of the largest film and television libraries in the industry.

According to the op-ed shared by Trump, the merger would make Netflix not only the dominant streaming service but “the most dominant cultural gatekeeper” in the United States, with outsized influence over which stories, ideas, and narratives reach mass audiences.

The article also questioned WBD’s decision to favor Netflix despite a competing all-cash offer from Paramount Skydance, reportedly valued at $30 per share. That bid, the op-ed argues, would represent a higher return for shareholders than Netflix’s proposal.

Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison, in a letter to WBD shareholders on Monday, announced it is suing WBD as its latest step in a hostile pursuit to acquire WBD.

The lawsuit asks a Delaware court to direct Warner Bros. Discovery to provide information about its sale process and pending deal with Netflix.
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“WBD has failed to include any disclosure about how it valued the Global Networks stub equity, how it valued the overall Netflix transaction, how the purchase price reduction for debt works in the Netflix transaction, or even what the basis is for its ‘risk adjustment’ of our $30 per share all-cash offer,” Ellison said in the letter.

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