Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos says President Donald Trump did not attempt to exert any influence over his proposed purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery before the streamer decided to back out of the deal.
Sarandos insists that there was “no political interference” on Trump’s part when Sarandos went to the Washington D.C. to lobby for the deal with federal regulators.
“The president is interested in entertainment and interested in deals, so he was curious about the mechanics of things and how things were going to go or whatever, but he made it very clear that this was under the DOJ,” Sarandos told Politico Europe.
Just ahead of the decision to back out of the deal, Sarandos was meeting with Trump officials at the White House and DOJ officials to try and jump some of the regulatory hurdles to get the deal to buy Warners approved.
Sarandos added that despite Trump’s public comments on social media and in interviews about the Warners deal, the president’s comments to Sarandos were “100 percent about the industry, protecting the industry.”
The Netflix chief also praised Trump, saying, “And I think it’s very healthy that the president of the United States speaks to business leaders about industries that are important to the economy.”
Sarandos added that he also spoke to Trump about the president’s past dalliances with a tariff on foreign film products and that he “hopefully talked to [Trump] the way out” of the tariff idea.
The CEO was a bit amazed at the press attention the meeting received, too.
“There was paparazzi outside of the White House waiting for me when I came out,” Sarandos said. “I’ve never experienced that before.”
Sarandos also told Politico that he had no indication that Trump had spoken to or worked with Paramount’ chief David Ellison as the latter continued his efforts to outbid Netflix to pick up ownership of Warners.
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