Netflix chief Ted Sarandos on Monday dismissed President Donald Trump’s demand that the streaming giant fire former national security adviser Susan Rice from its board, or “pay the consequences,” as the company is embroiled in a high-profile merger fight that will decide the fate of Warner Bros. Discovery.
Trump decried Rice as a “political hack” in a Saturday Truth Social post, hitching onto an earlier post from far-right activist Laura Loomer that called Netflix “anti-American” for associating with Rice, who was national security adviser during President Barack Obama’s second term. Rice served on Netflix’s board from 2018 to 2020, and rejoined in 2023 after working for the Biden administration.
“@POTUS must kill the merger,” Loomer later wrote on X.
“This is a business deal. It’s not a political deal,” Sarandos told BBC’s Amol Rajan in an interview. “[Trump] likes to do a lot of things on social media.”
Trump’s Truth Social post about Rice is his latest in a series of interventions in the industry-reshaping deal. In December, he said he’ll “be involved” in the review process, before reversing course early this month, telling NBC that he wouldn’t wade into the bitter bidding war.
Paramount Skydance — the parent company of CBS, which is controlled by the Trump-friendly Ellison family — is challenging Netflix’s $83 billion bid for WBD. The showdown has set off a lobbying bonanza in Washington, as each media company attempts to curry favor. Meanwhile, the Justice Department is probing Netflix’s proposed takeover, concerned that such a deal would grant monopoly powers to the streaming giant.
Sarandos has already made a direct plea to the president. The two men met in November, Bloomberg first reported, and Sarandos pitched Trump on the economic windfall that would result from Netflix’s deal.
“We’re buying assets that we don’t currently have,” Sarandos told BBC. “We’re buying a movie studio and a distribution entity that we don’t currently have. We’ll be adding to the market.”
“There’s five major studios left in Hollywood,” he continued. “If the Paramount deal were to go through, it would be four. … This industry will be much smaller under that ownership.”