Ted Sarandos, the co-chief executive of Netflix, made a stealthy visit to the Oval Office in November, chatting with President Trump as his company prepared an audacious bid to buy Warner Bros. and HBO. It went well enough that Mr. Trump was soon praising Mr. Sarandos as “fantastic” and comparing him to the legendary Hollywood mogul Louis B. Mayer.
On Sunday night, David Ellison, the chairman of Paramount Skydance, which is bidding against Netflix, had his chance to make his case face-to-face. Mr. Ellison was spotted in the presidential box with Mr. Trump at the Kennedy Center Honors ceremony in Washington.
Hours later, Mr. Ellison unveiled a hostile bid to block Netflix’s acquisition — and in the fine print, revealed his version of a trump card: a private equity firm founded by Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, is onboard as an investor in the deal.
Presidents are not supposed to influence the regulators who review major corporate deals, a process usually carried out at arm’s length from politicians’ whims.
But with the future of the news and entertainment industries in the balance, Mr. Trump, himself a film and TV connoisseur, has broken precedent by placing himself directly in the middle of the sale of Warner Bros. Discovery, the biggest media deal of the decade. And both Netflix and Paramount are paying attention.
“I’ll be involved in that decision,” a tuxedoed Mr. Trump told reporters as he posed for pictures on the red carpet of the Kennedy Center Honors on Sunday.
Mr. Trump has often relished pitting rivals against each other, from his “Apprentice” TV boardroom to the West Wing, and so far he is playing coy about which side he favors. (The White House did not immediately return a request for comment.)
On the red carpet on Sunday, the president lavished praise on Mr. Sarandos, but also cautioned that a Netflix win “could be a problem.” Mr. Trump raised concerns that a deal could create outsize market share for Netflix, mirroring an argument that Paramount is now making publicly.
Then, on Monday morning, the president threw a curveball, slamming Paramount over a “60 Minutes” interview with Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene that aired on Sunday on CBS, which is owned by the company.
“They are no better than the old ownership,” Mr. Trump wrote in a Truth Social post about Paramount Skydance, the Ellison-owned business that absorbed CBS and Paramount from the Redstone family this summer in another major deal.
That deal required approval from the Trump administration, and Paramount, under the Redstones’ ownership, agreed to pay $16 million to settle a lawsuit that Mr. Trump had brought against “60 Minutes” over its editing of an interview last year with then-Vice President Kamala Harris.
“Since they bought it, 60 Minutes has actually gotten WORSE!” Mr. Trump added in his post, referring to Paramount Skydance. (CBS had no response when asked for comment.)
It was not clear if Mr. Trump had the Warner Bros. sale in mind when he sent his post. But his criticism complicates the broader perception of his relationship with Mr. Ellison, whose father, the technology mogul Larry Ellison, is a friend of the president.
The Ellisons have appeared in public with Mr. Trump in recent months. David Ellison sat with the president at a U.F.C. match, one of Mr. Trump’s favorite pastimes, and later spent $7.7 billion to buy the wrestling league’s broadcast rights. Paramount is also in talks to distribute a new “Rush Hour” movie after Mr. Trump told Larry Ellison that he was a fan of the franchise.
Jeff Shell, the president of Paramount Skydance, and George Cheeks, the company’s head of TV, also attended the Kennedy Center Honors. The ceremony has a longtime affiliation with CBS, which will air an edited version of the event on Dec. 23. Bari Weiss, the editor in chief of CBS News, did not attend.
Although Netflix’s offer for Warner Bros. Discovery does not include CNN, Paramount has indicated an interest in acquiring the 24-hour news network. Mr. Ellison asked on CNBC on Monday if Mr. Trump liked the idea of his owning CNN, played his own version of coy.
“By the way, we’ve had great conversations with the president about this,” Mr. Ellison said. “But I think I don’t want to speak for him in any way, shape or form.”
John Koblin contributed reporting.
Michael M. Grynbaum writes about the intersection of media, politics and culture. He has been a media correspondent at The Times since 2016.
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