Trump demands Netflix fire Susan Rice as DOJ probes Warner deal

President Donald Trump late Saturday called on Netflix to fire board member Susan Rice or “pay the consequences,” after she said Democrats would push for corporate accountability if they regain power in the November midterm elections.

In a Truth Social post on Saturday, Trump described Rice, who served as President Joe Biden’s domestic policy chief and held top foreign policy posts under President Barack Obama, as “purely a political hack” with “no talent or skills.”

“HER POWER IS GONE, AND WILL NEVER BE BACK,” Trump wrote.

Rice argued during a podcast last week that “it is not going to end well” for corporations, news organizations, and law firms that “bent the knee” to Trump, and that their deference is unpopular.

“There is likely to be a swing in the other direction, and they are going to be caught with more than their pants down,” Rice told Preet Bharara, a former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. “They’re going to be held accountable by those who come in opposition to Trump and win at the ballot box.”

She added, “If these corporations think that Democrats, when they come back in power, are going to play by the old rules, and say, ‘Never mind, we will forgive you for all the people you fired and all the policies and principles you violated, all the laws you skirted,’ I think they got another thing coming.”

Rice served on Netflix’s board from 2018 to 2021, and rejoined in 2023 after leaving the Biden administration.

A Netflix spokesperson declined to comment on Trump’s remarks, and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump included a screenshot of an earlier post from far-right activist and Trump ally Laura Loomer, who said Rice’s remarks were “anti-American” and urged the president to “kill the Netflix-Warner Bros. merger now.” Loomer also tagged Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr in her post.

The comments come after Trump told NBC News earlier this month that the Department of Justice will “handle” the deal and that he’ll stay out of their review, after previously saying he’d be involved in the process. The DOJ is currently reviewing Netflix’s proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery.

Netflix has proposed acquiring WBD in a $72 billion deal that would not include the company’s cable networks, including CNN.

Paramount Skydance, in response, launched a hostile takeover bid for all of WBD, promising its shareholders $30 per share in an all-cash deal.

The DOJ is investigating whether Netflix’s proposed deal could hurt competition, and it’s also asked how the company’s previous acquisitions have affected competition for creative talent, The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month.

As part of its review, the agency is also examining whether the streaming giant uses anticompetitive tactics in negotiations with independent content creators for acquiring programming, Bloomberg reported, citing documents.

Steve Sunshine, Netflix’s outside counsel and the head of the global antitrust group at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, told CNBC in a statement that the law firm hasn’t been given any notice that the DOJ is conducting a monopolization investigation.

Netflix’s Chief Legal Officer, David Hyman, said in a statement that the company operates in an “extremely competitive market.”

“Any claim that it is a monopolist, or seeking to monopolize, is unfounded,” Hyman said. “We neither hold monopoly power nor engage in exclusionary conduct and we’ll gladly cooperate, as we always do, with regulators on any concerns they may have.”

Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said last month that he’s confident the company will be able to secure regulatory approval “because this deal is pro-consumer … pro-innovation, pro-worker.”

Source – CNBC