Trump told reporters on Monday that he didn’t know enough about Paramount’s bid to weigh in on it. “None of them are particularly great friends of mine,” he said, in an apparent reference to Paramount chief executive David Ellison and Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos. “I want to do what’s right.”
Netflix declined to comment for this story. A spokesperson for Barack Obama also declined to comment.
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Warner Bros spent months evaluating bids from Comcast, Netflix, and Paramount Skydance, now run by Ellison, the son of Trump ally and Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison. It entered a deal with Netflix on Friday, rejecting Paramount Skydance’s bid for the entire company, including CNN and other cable channels that WBD has said it would spin off.
Trump praised Netflix’s Sarandos on Sunday but told reporters that Netflix’s market share in streaming could be a “problem” and that he’d be personally involved in any regulatory approval process.
Paramount Skydance on Monday launched its own, unsolicited bid to take over Warner Bros Discovery. The company told investors that its deal, which features financial backing from Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, would have a quicker pathway to regulatory approval. Sovereign wealth funds from Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Qatar have also pledged financing.
Barack and Michelle Obama launched Higher Ground in 2018 as part of a multiyear agreement with Netflix to provide TV series, documentaries and movies for the streaming platform. The couple said at the time that its goal was not to directly counter Trump, who at the time was in his first term, but rather to highlight inspirational stories of people making a difference in their communities. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Among the titles Higher Ground has produced for Netflix are the 2019 film “American Factory,” which won an Academy Award for best documentary; “Becoming,” a 2020 documentary about Michelle Obama based on her memoir of the same name; and “Leave the World Behind,” an apocalyptic thriller starring Julia Roberts. It also produced “Rustin,” a biographical film about civil rights leader Bayard Rustin, for which actor Colman Domingo received an Academy Award nomination for best actor in a leading role.
Netflix and Higher Ground extended their partnership last year in a deal that gives the streamer a first look at any of the production company’s projects. Higher Ground has also produced programs for others including Walt Disney’s 20th Century Studios and entered an agreement with Spotify to produce podcasts in 2019.
Despite Higher Ground’s successes, most of Netflix’s top shows and movies – such as “Squid Game,” “Wednesday” and “Stranger Things” – have no connection to the production company. The streaming giant’s highest-profile deals have been with showrunners such as Shonda Rhimes and Ryan Murphy, not the former president.
Loomer was among the first high-profile influencers to highlight the Obamas’ influence on Netflix, tweeting last month: “If Netflix is allowed to buy Warner Bros and Trump’s administration doesn’t kill off the merger, CNN will be transformed into the Obama News Network, featuring shows hosted by Michelle Obama where she lectures Americans about how racist and sexist we are.”
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In fact, the proposed Netflix purchase would leave CNN and other WBD cable assets in a separate company. In a more recent blog post, Loomer didn’t mention CNN but suggested the deal was intended to lay the groundwork for a presidential run by Michelle Obama.
Opposition to Netflix from the right isn’t entirely new. In October, Musk urged his more than 220 million followers on X to “cancel Netflix for the health of your kids,” sharing a meme that suggested the streaming company pushes a “transgender woke agenda.”
He was responding to social media posts that drew attention to a short-lived Netflix animated series that featured a transgender character and indicated that the show’s creator had criticised the slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
On the other hand, in 2021, Netflix faced a backlash from transgender communities and their allies over a David Chappelle comedy special in which he said that “gender is a fact” and criticised LGBTQ+ people as “too sensitive.”
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