Trump Warns Netflix-Warner Deal May Pose Antitrust ‘Problem’ (1)

President Donald Trump raised potential antitrust concerns for Netflix Inc.’s planned acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery Inc., noting that the market share of the combined entity may pose problems.

“Well, that’s got to go through a process, and we’ll see what happens,” Trump said Sunday when asked about the deal as he arrived at the Kennedy Center for an event, confirming that he met Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos recently and complimenting the streaming company. “But it is a big market share. It could be a problem.”

Netflix has “a very big market share, and when they have Warner Brothers, you know, that share goes up a lot,” the president said, adding that he will be personally involved in the decision-making process.

Donald and Melania Trump at the Kennedy Center on Dec. 7.

Photographer: Allison Robbert/Getty Images

The $72 billion deal would combine the world’s No. 1 streaming player with the No. 4 service HBO Max, which has raised red flags from antitrust regulators. The Justice Department’s antitrust division, which would review the transaction in the US, could argue that the deal is illegal because the combined market share would put Netflix well over a 30% threshold.

Read More: Netflix–Warner Bros. Deal Sets Up $72 Billion Antitrust Test

Netflix is expected to argue that other services such as Google’s YouTube and ByteDance Ltd.’s TikTok should be included in any analysis of the market, which would dramatically shrink the platform’s perceived market dominance.

Netflix’s Sarandos met with Trump at the White House recently to lobby for the acquisition, Bloomberg reported earlier. Netflix wasn’t any kind of all-powerful monopoly, the executive argued at that time, and had suffered its own subscriber losses a couple of years earlier, according to people familiar with the matter.

Read More: Netflix’s Sarandos Wooed Trump in Person Ahead of Warner Bid

--With assistance from María Paula Mijares Torres.

To contact the reporters on this story:
Hadriana Lowenkron in Washington at hlowenkron@bloomberg.net;
Se Young Lee in Washington at vlee294@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Kevin Whitelaw at kwhitelaw@bloomberg.net

Wendy Benjaminson

© 2025 Bloomberg L.P. All rights reserved. Used with permission.