President Donald Trump has said he will not be personally involved in the Justice Department’s pending antitrust review of Netflix’s proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery.
President Trump told NBC news anchor Tom Llamas in a prerecorded interview that will air Sunday ahead of the Super Bowl telecast on NBC and Peacock that he made the decision to leave the process to the Justice Department. In December, days after Netflix and WBD entered into an $83 billion merger agreement, President Trump told reporters, “I will be involved in that decision.”
But this week, Trump told Lamas he had changed his mind, despite being contacted by “both sides” about the deal.
“I’m not involved,” Trump told the “NBC Nightly News” anchor in a video aired by NBC News as a preview of the full sit-down set before Sunday’s big game. Pre-Super Bowl presidential interviews by host network anchors have been a tradition in the NFL’s big day since President George W. Bush first conducted them in 2004.
“I have to say, I guess I’m considered a very powerful president. I’ve been called by both sides. Both sides have decided I shouldn’t be involved. The Department of Justice will handle it,” Trump said, according to an NBC News transcript.
President Trump acknowledged that Netflix’s proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. is complex and raises significant antitrust concerns about its long-term impact on the streaming TV market. He also nods to the ongoing skirmish between Netflix and Paramount Skydance, which continues its campaign to separate WBD from Netflix.
“The theory is that one company is too big and shouldn’t be allowed to do it, and the other company says something else,” he said. “They are beating each other to the teeth, and there will be a winner.”
