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President Trump’s trust bought as much as $1.25 million worth of Netflix bonds in January as the streamer was in a heated bidding war with Paramount Skydance for Warner Bros. Discovery, according to government filings released this week.
The president bought $500,000 to $1 million worth of debt on Jan. 2 and made another purchase worth $100,000 to $250,000 on Jan. 20, according to the documents, which were posted online Wednesday by the US Office of Government Ethics.
The two new transactions added to the $500,000 to $1 million in Netflix bonds the president purchased in December, just after the streaming giant announced its initial bid for Warner Bros. Discovery.
The president bought at least $500,000 worth of Warner Bros. stock in December, though the company’s stock did not appear in his January filing.
Last week, Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos failed to convince skeptical Trump administration officials to approve his proposed takeover of WBD in spite of antitrust concerns – and the deal quickly fell apart from there, The Post reported.
Netflix failed to hike its own offer to match David Ellison-led Paramount Skydance’s $111 billion deal and bowed out of the competition – making room for the Ellison family to acquire a behemoth media empire including CNN, CBS, HBO, Paramount and Warner Bros.
After months of declines, Netflix stock has spiked about 17% since then.
The White House has said that Trump’s assets are in a trust run by his children and managed by financial advisors, so there are no conflicts of interest.
“President Trump only acts in the best interests of the American public – which is why they overwhelmingly re-elected him to this office, despite years of lies and false accusations against him and his businesses from the fake news media,” White House spokesperson Anna Kelly told The Post in a statement.
Trump also acquired bonds from companies like SiriusXM, General Motors, Occidental Petroleum, Victoria’s Secret, Macy’s, Carnival, Boeing and Wells Fargo, according to the filings.
According to his most recent full-year financial disclosure, the president held a five-figure amount of Netflix stock in 2024.
The document also showed Trump receiving a $333.31 residual check from Warner Bros. for his cameo appearances in “Two Weeks Notice,” “Suddenly Susan” and “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.”
The president said last year that he would not be involved in the Warner Bros. deal’s review.
Trump has long blasted CNN’s coverage of him as “dishonest,” and in December, he called for any deal involving WBD to hand the news channel over to new owners.
David Ellison – whose billionaire father Larry Ellison is the founder of Oracle and a close Trump ally – assured Trump administration officials that he would make sweeping changes to CNN if he bought Warner Bros., the Wall Street Journal reported in December.
“Larry Ellison is great and his son David is great,” Trump told reporters in October. “They’re friends of mine. They’re big supporters of mine, and they’ll do the right thing.”
David Ellison pledged Thursday to maintain CNN’s “editorial independence” if the deal secures regulatory approvals, as staffers at the lefty cable network are reportedly panicking over a possible shift in editorial direction.
English (US)