U.S. President Donald Trump speaks before signing an executive order in the Oval Office of the White House on January 30, 2026 in Washington, DC.
Annabel Gordon AFP | Getty Images
President Donald Trump reversed his stance in a new interview Wednesday, saying he would not get involved in the fight between the streaming giants. Netflix and paramount skydance purchase some or all of warner bros discovery.
President Trump told NBC Nightly News, “I had no involvement.”
President Trump said he had “heard from both sides.” “It’s a mutual issue, but I decided I shouldn’t get involved. The Department of Justice will handle it.”
President Trump’s latest comments represent a change in focus from his comments in early December, after Netflix’s proposed acquisition of WBD was made public.
President Trump said at the time that the deal “could be problematic” given the amount of market share Netflix would ultimately gain if the proposed takeover was approved by federal regulators.
The president also said he would be involved in the process of reviewing and potentially approving the deal, which faces U.S. regulatory approval as well as review by European regulators.
David Ellison, son of billionaire Larry Ellison, is the CEO of Paramount and is close to Trump.
And Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos visited Trump in the Oval Office shortly before the company’s offer to WBD was recommended by WBD leadership.
Netflix is proposing to acquire WBD in a deal worth $72 billion, which does not include its cable networks, including CNN. In addition to HBO and streaming service HBO Max, the deal also gives Netflix WBD movie studio.
In response, Paramount launched a hostile takeover of all of WBD, which was valued at more than $108 billion.
“The theory is that one company is too big and shouldn’t be allowed, and the other company says something else,” Trump told NBC News on Wednesday.
“They are beating each other to the teeth, and there will be a winner,” the president said.
Sarandos appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee’s antitrust subcommittee on Tuesday and reportedly said his meeting with President Trump was “not specifically about talking about the deal.”
“I have confidence in the merits of this case and I am confident that it will be administered by the Department of Justice,” Sarandos said, according to the New York Times.
“Taken together, you might say that Netflix is trying to become the one platform that rules everything, or at least to exercise significant market power,” Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, said at the hearing, according to the Times.
“This merger, in a nutshell, brings together both production and distribution power, which raises a number of antitrust concerns,” Lee said.
