President Donald Trump bought at least $500,000 worth of bonds in both Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery within the two weeks following the two companies’ deal, under which Netflix is to acquire WB’s studios and streaming businesses.
According to a financial disclosure form released Friday by the White House, Trump bought between $250,001 and $500,000 of Netflix debt securities on two separate dates, Dec. 12 and Dec. 16. He also bought the same range of bonds for Discovery Communications (a WBD subsidiary) on those same dates. The Trump financial disclosure covered transactions spanning mid-November to late December.
On Dec. 5, Netflix and WBD announced a deal with an $82.7 billion enterprise deal. Under those terms, the streaming giant would acquire WB’s studios, HBO and HBO Max, and its games group — but not any of WBD’s TV networks, which would be spun off into a new entity, Discovery Global, to Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders in Q3 of 2026.Â
The financial disclosures for Trump, released through the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, show that most of his acquisitions were municipal bonds from cities, local school districts, utilities and hospitals. He also bought bonds from other corporations including SiriusXM, Boeing, GM, Macy’s, Occidental Petroleum and Whirlpool.
According to the White House, Trump’s financial portfolio is independently managed by third-party financial institutions — and neither Trump nor any member of his family has any ability to direct, influence or provide input regarding how the portfolio is invested, Reuters reported.
In December, Trump met with Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos at the White House to discuss the Warner Bros. Discovery deal. Trump, speaking last month with reporters on the red carpet of the Kennedy Center Honors in Washington, D.C., said Netflix’s deal to acquire Warner Bros. studios and streaming business will require a review, and said, “I’ll be involved in that decision.” He also said the market share of a combined Netflix with WB and HBO Max “could be a problem.”
Also last month, Trump said that as part of “any deal” for WBD, CNN should be sold as part of an overall sale or sold separately. “I think I think CNN should be sold because I think the people that are running CNN right now” are “either corrupt or incompetent,” he said. Trump said he didn’t want the current CNN management to be rewarded by being allowed to continue running the network “with money” from a deal.
Meanwhile, Netflix and WBD are facing pressure from David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance, which is waging a hostile takeover bid in trying to convince WBD shareholders that its $30/share offer is superior to Netflix’s terms. Paramount has sued Warner Bros. Discovery, seeking to compel it to produce financial info including how it is valuing the Discovery Global spin-off, said it will initiate a proxy war to install directors on WBD’s board amenable to its offer.
Trump, asked a White House briefing on Dec. 8 if he was in favor of Paramount’s rival bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, said, “I don’t know enough about it,” saying he had to look at how each proposed deal would impact market share for Netflix and Paramount Skydance. He added, “I mean, none of them are particularly great friends of mine.”
On Sunday, Jan. 11, Trump on his Truth Social account posted (without comment) a link to an OAN opinion piece titled “Stop the Netflix Cultural Takeover,” which in part asserted that Netflix “has repeatedly used its global platform to elevate progressive narratives while suppressing dissenting viewpoints.” The essay also said that if Netflix completes its deal with WBD, the streaming company “will become the most dominant cultural gatekeeper the United States — and much of the world — has ever seen.”
Asked about Trump’s posting of the opinion piece, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, in an interview with the New York Times published Friday, said, “I don’t know why he would have done that. No conversation we ever had was about any of the things that were in that article that he posted. I don’t want to overread it, either.”
