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At tonight’s premiere of Amazon Prime Video‘s Melania documentary, Donald Trump had something to say about some other streamers and studios.
Asked by Deadline’s Ted Johnson if he was opposed to Netflix‘s $83 billion acquisition of Warner Bros movie, TV, HBO and digital assets, POTUS replied: “Well, I am looking at the whole thing. I have a great feeling.”
Though the David Zaslav-run Warner Bros. Discovery has agreed to the deal with the streamer, David Ellison and Paramount still hope to snag all of WBD with a $108 billion hostile takeover action — or derail the Netflix’s effort in the halls of power. Taking his case to Congress and up against accusations that a WB-owning Netflix would have unfair dominion over the streaming market, Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos is set to testify before the Sen Mike Lee (R-UT) chaired Senate Judiciary antitrust subcommittee on February 3
With that in mind, Trump Thursday said: “I like both of them very much. It looks to me like one of them is very much a monopoly if they are able to do this deal. So we will see how it all works out.”
Go to the 0:56 to watch the exchange between Trump and our Mr. Johnson at the Melania opening below.
The latest comments by Trump on the multi-billion battle came as the former Apprentice host was walking the black carpet at the premiere of the Melania documentary tonight at the Kennedy Center.
Directed by the once-shunned Brett Ratner, the very authorized biography of the very private and choreographed First Lady hits theaters on over 1,200 screens on Friday, with a streaming run to follow on Amazon Prime Video. In a deal that the Jeff Bezos-founded streamer has insisted is not intended to curry favor with the White House and will almost certainly see them losing money, Amazon paid $40 million for the film and has coughed up around $35 million more to promote it. At the same time, unseen by critics and with Mrs. Trump paid over $25 million, Melania could make $3 to $5 million this weekend, mainly from rural Red State audiences.
Either way, the doc has put the two-time First Lady in the spotlight and the name of Amazon’s streaming service on the lips of everyone in political and entertainment circles. For masters of distraction like the Trump team, the Melania film has shifted some of the focus away from the chaos of ICE killing Americans and abducting individuals, including children, Russia’s war on Ukraine, another government shut down, and continuing protests and bloodshed in Iran.
Insisting again and again that they are the only ones who will get regulatory approval (wink: Larry Ellison in particular is as close with Trump as anyone can be), Paramount last week extended their shareholders deadline from January 21 to February 20. So far, WBD shareholders have not come running over in big numbers.
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