Trump Secret Meetings to Take Over Media Revealed

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2:23Michael Popok:After telling the American people that he was going to stay out of it, related to his friends trying to acquire CNN and its parent company, Warner Brothers Discovery, Donald Trump has been secretly meeting with David Ellison, the Nepo baby son of the Ellison family, who owns Oracle, to try to not only advise on how to acquire CNN and Warner Brothers in their fight against Netflix, who wants to acquire the same assets, but is also, of course, in control of the major governmental regulator at the Department of Justice. And what did Donald Trump do to grease the skids, to put CNN in the hands of a buddy of his, to make it MAGA-friendly?

3:08Michael Popok:He fired the head of the anti-trust division, Abigail Slater. I'm Michael Popok. Let's talk about secret meetings. Let's talk about the firing of the one person who would have been the safety valve against this transaction. And now the new reporting today that, oh, lo and behold, Warner Brothers is back in discussions with Donald Trump's favorite acquirer, the Ellison family, and is starting to turn its back against Netflix that put in the better offer. I'm Michael Popak. You're on Legal AF and Midas Touch Network. Let's get down to this new story on this holiday Monday. All right. From the perspective of media properties that are in play, CNN had always been considered at one point a crown jewel of the media empire, and Donald Trump has wanted to get CNN over to the right right wing to join Fox, CBS, 60 Minutes, The Washington Post, ABC and everybody else that he's abused.

4:12Michael Popok:He's used a combination of working behind the scenes, putting his big fat thumb on the scale, manipulating the regulators that he controls, and then finding ways to have these transactions happen. We see Donald Trump, the dealmaker, right? He already has American taxpayer dollars invested in half a dozen companies. Yes, you and I own a stake in half a dozen companies, in the raw rare earth minerals business, in steel, in semiconductors, computer chips, et cetera. Now, Donald Trump also is trying to get media to be pro-Trump. He's abused the Washington Post, I mean, willingly. Bezos owns it. And Bezos is busy giving a Melania$40 million for a documentary nobody wants to watch and then fires half of his newsroom almost in the same week.

5:07Michael Popok:Now let's turn to Warner Brothers. Warner Brothers Discovery owns a lot of space on your cable box or however you get your content, including CNN. Now Netflix came forward first to try to acquire and put together a superior bid at about$30 a share, saying they would take the Hollywood studio, the movie studio of Warner Brothers and the streaming service, but they wouldn't take CNN and allow Warner Brothers to sell CNN separately. That was for$30 a share. Then came forward Paramount, run by the Ellison family, friends of Donald Trump, to acquire the entirety of Warner Brothers discovery, including CNN.

5:52Michael Popok:That's the one that Donald Trump wants. In fact, when he was asked Trump during, I think, a Lincoln, during a Kennedy Center event, I refuse to call it the other name, he was asked about the acquisition. And while he praised Netflix as being a really great company, he starts talking about market share, which is a monopoly antitrust concept that a company can't acquire too many other of its competitors, or it would be bad, not for Donald Trump, but usually bad for consumers. That's something that's regulated by the antitrust department of the Department of Justice, which at that moment, when Donald Trump said this next thing, was headed by Abigail Slater for the last 10 or 11 months.

6:35Michael Popok:Play the clip of Donald Trump.

6:36MeidasTouch:Should they be allowed to buy Warner Brothers? Should Netflix? Well, that's a question. They have a very big market share. And when they have Warner Brothers, you know, that share goes up a lot. So I don't know. that's going to be for some economists to tell. And also, and I'll be involved in that decision, too. But they have a very big market share. Did he make any guarantees to you about the merger if they do merge? No, no, no. He came up. He was in the Oval Office last week. I have a lot of respect for him. He's a great, he's a great person. But he's done one of the greatest jobs in the history of movies and other things.

7:11MeidasTouch:He's got a lot of interesting things happening aside from what you're talking about. But it is a big market here. There's no question about it. It could be a problem.

7:20Michael Popok:That led to a firestorm of protests. So Donald Trump decided to do it another way. Right. He's been guiding as an advisor, David Ellison, who's been meeting regularly in the last week with Donald Trump himself. Then he announced Trump that he's going to get out of the business of being involved with the Warner Brothers deal. Does anybody believe this? Play the clip.

7:44MeidasTouch:You are close with the Ellisons who are trying to stop a merger between Warner Brothers, Discovery and Netflix. This deal could change the makeup of the media as we know it. Are you personally going to get involved in that deal? I haven't been involved. I must say, I guess I'm considered to be a very strong president. I've been called by both sides. It's the two sides. But I've decided I shouldn't be involved. The Justice Department will handle it. OK, in what way? Just looking at it, see if it's right. You make a decision. I mean, there's a theory that one of the companies is too big and it shouldn't be allowed to do it.

8:17MeidasTouch:And the other company is saying something else about, you know, they're not going to. But you're not going to interfere, even though you're close with each other and there'll be a winner.

8:24Michael Popok:We're a year into the new administration and it's getting harder to read the news and see continued attacks on our First Amendment freedoms daily. Now is the time to look for the helpers, those who are strategically fighting day in and out to preserve our constitutional freedoms. One of the organizations fighting the good fight is Americans United for Separation of Church and State. Their mission is to protect everyone's right to live as they are and believe as they choose, so long as they don't harm others. AU is fighting back against the wave of Christian nationalist threats happening across the country.

9:00Michael Popok:They filed 11 lawsuits last year alone, multiple against the Trump administration, to protect your individual freedom of and from religion. Whether you support public education, are passionate about LGBTQ plus and reproductive rights, or some combination of all, AU relies on the help of its supporters to do this important work. If you're looking for an organization to support and learn from, head to au.org slash legal AF to see how you can get involved in their work and support the fight against Christian nationalism. That's au.org slash legal AF. When America's divided, we are Americans united.

9:41Michael Popok:Learn more at au.org slash legal AF. And what happened just, I don't know, 48 hours later or so? He fired the only person in the Department of Justice with the balls to stop the transaction, Abigail Slater. Dealmaking is back, right? This White House is completely open for business. and what the Trump administration did under a subterranean, if you will, under the surface, is have Donald Trump control this deal, get the regulator out of the way, advise Ellison, and now suddenly we got the new reporting today that Warner Brothers is back in talks with Paramount. Now, Paramount has only increased its offer about$1.75 a share.

10:30Michael Popok:That's it. Saying, oh, well, we'll pay the$3 billion dollar breakup fee if Netflix sues and we'll backstop this debt. And if we don't close by December 31st, we'll pay a monthly charge and all this other stuff, barely raising its bid. I mean, even the shareholders of Warner Brothers don't like the Paramount deal because only 2 % voted for it when they try to go directly to the shareholders. But Donald Trump doesn't care about that. He wants to get CNN in the hands of the Ellison family. I just saw an amazing statistic that just came out in the last couple of days, which I think explains why Donald Trump is working so hard to control sort of all of corporate media, right?

11:19Michael Popok:This is a new survey that just came out in The Hollywood Reporter. And listen to these numbers. 54 % of U.S. adults get at least some of their information from YouTube newscasters, 25 % of them on a regular basis, and 57 % of YouTube's news audience is women. And if you're sitting around on one of these slickly produced shows on CNN or MSNBC or Fox, those days are waning. So Donald Trump wants to grab as much of corporate media that he can control because he can't control us. He can't control YouTube. He can't control the independent commentary and journalism that is the Midas Touch brand and is the Legal AF brand, period, end of story.

12:09Michael Popok:But I want to rip the cover off this story because the reporting, when it's done piecemeal, Oh, Paramount increased its bid. Warner Brothers back in talks with Paramount. Netflix shareholders give thumbs up to Netflix not acquiring Warner Brothers. Donald Trump meets with Larry Ellison's son in the White House. Donald Trump fires antitrust head, Abigail Slater. You sort of get lost of what all of this really means. That's why I wanted to meaningfully connect the dots and explain to you where we are. This is Donald Trump barely behind the scenes, manipulating the process to get CNN in the hands of his friends.

12:55Michael Popok:Period. We'll continue to watch it. You're on Midas Touch at the free subscribe button. Come over to Legal AF YouTube and do the exact same thing. So until my next report, I'm Michael. Can't get your fill of Legal AF? Me neither. That's why we formed the Legal AF Substack. Every time we mention something in a hot take, whether it's a court filing or a oral argument, Come over to the Substack. You'll find the court filing and the oral argument there, including a daily roundup that I do call, wait for it, Morning AF. What else? All the other contributors from Legal AF are there as well. We got some new reporting.

13:28Michael Popok:We got interviews. We got ad-free versions of the podcast and hot takes. Where? Legal AF on Substack. Come over now to free subscribe.

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