\u201cNeither President Trump nor any member of his family has any ability to direct, influence or provide input regarding how the portfolio is invested or when investments are bought or sold.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump has involved himself in Netflix\u2019s blockbuster deal to buy Warner Bros Discovery and has criticised Netflix\u2019s market power.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have a very big market share,\u201d Trump told reporters at the Kennedy Centre on December 7, two days after the deal was announced. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen they have Warner Bros, that share goes up a lot. So, I don\u2019t know. That\u2019s going to be for some economists to tell and also \u2013 and I\u2019ll be involved in that decision too. But they have a very big market share.\u201d<\/p>\n
The next day, Paramount Skydance, an unsuccessful bidder in the blitz to buy Warner Bros Discovery, launched a hostile bid to buy the company. Paramount Skydance is run by David Ellison, the son of Trump ally Larry Ellison, the co-founder of Oracle.<\/p>\n
A spokeswoman for Netflix declined to comment. Paramount Skydance declined to comment. Spokespeople for Warner Bros Discovery and the Trump Organisation did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n
On January 11, Trump posted on Truth Social an opinion column published by One America News titled \u201cStop the Netflix Cultural Takeover.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf Netflix absorbs these assets, it will not just be the biggest streaming service,\u201d the author wrote. \u201cIt will become the most dominant cultural gatekeeper the US \u2013 and much of the world \u2013 has ever seen.\u201d <\/p>\n
In recent weeks, Trump-aligned social media influencers have also urged the President to intervene to block the Netflix acquisition.<\/p>\n
Any merger or purchases involving the companies would be subject to regulatory approval by the federal Government. <\/p>\n
Trump has said he won\u2019t give any special treatment to Ellison over Netflix co-chief executive Ted Sarandos, both of whom have met with the President. <\/p>\n
\u201cNone of them are particularly great friends of mine,\u201d he told reporters on December 9. \u201cI want to do what\u2019s right.\u201d<\/p>\n
The first bonds were purchased three days later.<\/p>\n
Sign up to Herald Premium Editor\u2019s Picks<\/a>, delivered straight to your inbox every Friday. Editor-in-Chief Murray Kirkness picks the week\u2019s best features, interviews and investigations. Sign up for Herald Premium here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cNeither President Trump nor any member of his family has any ability to direct, influence or provide input…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":238632,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[50493,74,696,9344,8613,910,3241,2748,138,44547,124,3468,2026,2178,71,2734,4223,78,1073,28126,1132,130,1094,111,139,69,2847,2572,54547,9939,131,1361,2179,9938,86361,140681,140682,36314,4518,19985],"class_list":["post-238631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-17m","tag-after","tag-announced","tag-announcement","tag-billion","tag-bonds","tag-bought","tag-bros","tag-business","tag-corporate","tag-could","tag-deal","tag-discovery","tag-donald","tag-from","tag-giants","tag-hollywood","tag-in","tag-media","tag-merger","tag-million","tag-more","tag-netflix","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-only","tag-president","tag-reshape","tag-states","tag-than","tag-that","tag-trump","tag-united","tag-us1","tag-us1m","tag-us83","tag-warner","tag-weeks","tag-worth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238631\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}