Donald Trump doesn’t usually walk the red carpet at the Kennedy Center Honors, but there he was last night, tuxedo on, chatting with reporters like it was just another Sunday evening.
Someone asked him about the endless rumors that Netflix might merge with Warner Bros Discovery. Trump didn’t hesitate.
“Ted Sarandos is a fantastic man, really good guy,” he started, smiling. Then the smile faded a little. “But if they put Netflix together with Warner, that market share… it gets to be a problem. A real problem.”
One Sentence That Shook Hollywood
That was it. Ten seconds, maybe fifteen, and the whole room went quiet for a beat before the cameras started clicking again.
Anyone who follows the business knows exactly why those words landed like a thunderclap. Put Netflix and Warner Bros Discovery together and you’re suddenly staring at a colossus: Harry Potter, Batman, Game of Thrones, Friends, The Matrix, Stranger Things, Squid Game, CNN, TNT sports — everything, everywhere, all at once, behind one login.
Wall Street has been whispering about this for months. Warner is carrying roughly forty billion dollars in debt and desperately needs a dance partner. Netflix has the cash, the global reach, and ninety million American households already paying every month.
The Internet Did the Math in Real Time
By the time Trump walked inside to watch the ceremony, Variety’s clip was already racing across X. Within an hour people were posting spreadsheets: “That’s easily 35 percent of U.S. streaming. Maybe more.”
Someone joked that Trump praised Sarandos first and threatened the deal second, like a proud uncle who still grounds you for staying out late. Plenty of others just dropped popcorn gifs.
Behind the Scenes, the Phones Started Ringing
Nothing is on paper yet. Netflix has spent two decades insisting it doesn’t want dusty old studios; it wants to invent the future. Warner’s David Zaslav has spent the last three years looking for someone—anyone—to help shoulder the debt he took on when he glued HBO and Discovery together.
Both companies will probably shrug and say a president-elect’s red-carpet comment changes zero. Every merger lawyer from L.A. to Manhattan just opened a fresh billing file anyway.
For the rest of us, it means we’ll keep handing over fifteen bucks to Netflix, twelve to Max, twenty to Disney, ten to Hulu, and quietly wonder which icon on the home screen disappears first.
And somewhere in Mar-a-Lago tonight, Trump is probably retelling the story, laughing about how he looked Ted Sarandos in the eye and said, “Great guy, Ted — but that’s too much power. Way too much.”
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