Beyond President Trump's walk down the red carpet at the Kennedy Center Opera House in Washington, D.C., where he greeted actors, musicians, and entertainment industry legends on Sunday evening, he also spoke with reporters about one of the biggest developments in Hollywood: Netflix's plan to acquire Warner Bros., including its film and television studios as well as HBO and HBO Max, in a $72 billion deal.

Trump told reporters on the red carpet that he had some skepticism about the prospects of the Netflix-WBD getting approval. He suggested that regulators could push back, noting Netflix already has a large market share that would "go up a lot" if it acquires WBD.

"Well, that's got to go through a process, and we'll see what happens," the president said, adding, "They have a very big market share ... when they have Warner Bros., that share goes up a lot."

Trump said he plans to discuss the mechanics of the deal with "some economists" before giving it his approval.

"I'll be involved in that decision, too," he said. Normally, presidents don't intervene directly in antitrust reviews of corporate mergers, which makes his comments stand out. It also reinforces the growing panic across Hollywood about what this deal could mean.

"But it is a big market share, there's no question about that. It could be a problem," he added.

No other than the former WBD CEO summed things up succinctly:

If I was tasked with doing so, I could not think of a more effective way to reduce competition in Hollywood than selling WBD to Netflix.

And as we pointed out:

Besides consolidation, Benny Johnson pointed out the marriage between the two companies may only suggest a more sinister plot: Netflix's plan to "own a monopoly on children's entertainment."

Over the weekend, Barclays analysts led by Kannan Venkateshwar questioned Netflix's deal, asking why it would spend nearly $80 billion for a studio company it already disrupted, especially with only $2 to $3 billion in expected synergies and a slow integration due to existing WBD distribution and content-licensing agreements (read the report).

Also, Trump added that Netflix's CEO, Ted Sarandos, joined him at the White House last week. He said Sarandos was a "great person" who has done "one of the greatest jobs in the history of movies."

The latest Polymarket odds of whether the Netflix-WBD closes by the end of 2026 stand at 19%.

Merger approvals are typically handled by independent regulatory agencies, such as the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice, rather than by the president directly. That makes Trump's stated involvement highly unusual. It's also worth noting that Paramount–Skydance, backed by the Ellison family, recently made a bid for WBD.