Trump Targets Netflix Board Member as DOJ Reviews Warner Bros. Acquisition
President Donald Trump demanded Saturday that Netflix remove board member Susan Rice from its board of directors, threatening the streaming giant would "pay the consequences" if it fails to comply—a public escalation that arrives as the Department of Justice reviews Netflix's proposed takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery.
The threat, delivered via Trump's Truth Social platform late Saturday, follows Rice's comments during a podcast last week warning that corporations showing deference to the Trump administration would face accountability if Democrats regain control in November's midterm elections. For Netflix CFO and corporate development teams, the timing creates an uncomfortable collision between political pressure and what would be one of the largest media mergers in recent history.
Trump called Rice, who served as President Joe Biden's domestic policy chief and held senior foreign policy positions under President Barack Obama, "purely a political hack" with "no talent or skills." In all-caps text, he declared "HER POWER IS GONE, AND WILL NEVER BE BACK."
Rice's podcast remarks specifically criticized corporations, news organizations, and law firms that "bent the knee" to Trump, arguing their deference is unpopular and predicting "it is not going to end well" for them. "There is likely to be a swing in the other direction, and they are going to be caught with more than their pants down," she said.
The public confrontation puts Netflix in a precarious position as it navigates DOJ antitrust review of its Warner Bros. Discovery acquisition. While the Justice Department operates with statutory independence from the White House, presidential commentary on pending merger reviews is highly unusual and creates obvious questions about political influence on what should be a purely regulatory process.
For finance leaders watching the situation, the incident illustrates a broader challenge: how to maintain board composition and governance independence while managing regulatory relationships during politically charged periods. Netflix's board now faces the question of whether responding to presidential pressure would itself constitute a governance failure, or whether ignoring it carries business risks during a critical transaction review.
The Warner Bros. Discovery deal represents a significant consolidation in streaming and traditional media, combining Netflix's dominant streaming platform with Warner's content library and linear television assets. The transaction's approval likely depends on DOJ antitrust officials' assessment of market concentration and competitive effects—analysis that traditionally occurs without regard to board composition disputes.
What remains unclear is whether Trump's statement represents merely political theater or signals potential complications in the merger review process. The answer will likely emerge in how DOJ staff handle the transaction timeline and what information requests Netflix receives in coming weeks.
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