Donald Trump is once again using his bully pulpit to issue thinly veiled threats to media companies.
The president called on Netflix to oust former United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice from its board of directors after Rice made disparaging comments about corporations who kowtowed to Trump.
“Netflix should fire racist, Trump Deranged Susan Rice, IMMEDIATELY, or pay the consequences. She’s got no talent or skills – Purely a political hack!” he wrote on Truth Social on Saturday. “HER POWER IS GONE, AND WILL NEVER BE BACK. How much is she being paid, and for what??”
Trump’s comments come as Netflix is engaged in a bidding war to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery. The streaming giant is fighting off an all-cash bid from Paramount Skydance, a company that has seemingly bent to Trump’s whims for favorable treatment by his administration. Rice had badmouthed companies looking to flatter Trump during a visit to the podcast “Stay Tuned with Preet Bharara” earlier this week.
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Rice said that Trump’s unpopularity would reflect poorly on companies that were overly eager to work with his administration.
“It’s not going to end well for them, for those that decided that it was, you know, that they would act in their perceived, very narrow self-interest, which I would underscore is very short-term self-interest,” she said. “What he is doing, whether on the economy and affordability or on immigration, now, is not popular, and that there is likely to be a swing in the other direction, and they are going to be caught with more than their pants down.”
