What is Trump's interest in Paramount's merger with WB?
episodePreviously titled “What is Trump's interest in Paramount’s merger with WB?” — renamed by the publisher on Aug 6, 2026
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What is the Paramount‑Warner merger and why does it matter?
The midterms are coming, and that means the news cycle, which is already intense, is about to get more intense this fall. So this summer is a perfect time to make sure your news diet is calibrated. I'm Laila Fadil. On Up First, we unpack the three biggest stories every morning so you can stay informed and get on with your day in less than 15 minutes. Follow or subscribe to Up First today wherever you get your podcasts.
You may have heard about the planned merger between Paramount and Warner Brothers. It's a massive business transaction worth $111 billion. There's a Hollywood angle. There's a media angle. But it's also just a fascinating episode in the ongoing battle between the president and the press. It's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Tamara Keith. I cover politics.
I'm Mara Liason, senior national political correspondent.
And we also have NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik here with us today. Hey, David.
Hey, guys.
David, you have been covering this merger through all the ins and outs, but this is the first time we're talking about it on the pod. So what do we need to know?
So, I mean, it's just an extraordinary effort to bring together these two Hollywood titans, right? These great names that have echoed for a century in Hollywood. Think of under the same roof you would have Hollywood. Paramount Pictures, Warner Brothers Studios, HBO, and Showtime. You'd have Paramount Plus and HBO Max as streamers, and you'd have the nation's most watched broadcast TV network in CBS under the same roof as like 50 plus basic cable channels. There are probably a whole bunch of other units I'm not even mentioning, but it is an extraordinary constellation of entertainment assets that would all be under the Ellison family. And CBS News and CNN would be under the same roof and presumably to some degree significantly integrated.
Journalism titans right there. We should note that Paramount Plus, CNN, HBO, Warner Brothers Pictures and Warner Brothers Discovery are financial supporters of NPR. So, David, why do these titans want to merge?
So Paramount actually was part of an $8 billion deal just approved by the Trump administration a year ago. They were taken over by David Ellison, who had run Skydance Media, a Hollywood producer who'd done Mission Impossible movies, among others.
Why does the Ellison family want to combine Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery?
And really the money behind him is Larry Ellison, who's the co-founder of Oracle and one of the wealthiest people walking the planet. So they want in short time to take over not only Paramount, which they did in just an $8 billion deal, and now in Warner in a deal valued at $111 billion. And they're making the argument that they need this scale. They need this scale not to compete just in Hollywood, but compete against the new titans of the entertainment field. And those are actually digital titans. So you're thinking about Netflix, you're talking about Amazon, and you're talking about Apple. And They say we need this scale to fight the streamers, just as Disney got approval during the first Trump administration to buy most of Fox's Hollywood assets because they saw the streaming threat coming.
Right now, Paramount and Warner, you know, with Paramount Plus and HBO Max are looking to their digital competitors and saying we're going to have real trouble winning this alone.
Yeah, and you know what's so interesting about this and the reason why we're talking about it on the Politics podcast, not just the merger podcast, is because President Trump has taken a big interest in this merger, not just personally and financially. He actually invested in Paramount and Warner Brothers while his own Department of Justice was looking at the merger, but also because there are two news organizations involved in this merger, CNN and CBS. And President Trump has made it very clear for a very long time that that he at least wants to bend the coverage of news networks to be more favorable to him. So he's taken a big interest in this merger. And here he is speaking to Caitlin Collins, CNN correspondent, in June during an Oval Office pool spray.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the Paramount‑Warner merger and why does it matter?
0:00–2:29
2
Why does the Ellison family want to combine Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery?
2:29–5:04
3
How is President Trump personally and financially involved in the deal?
5:04–7:53
4
What legal challenges are Democratic attorneys‑general bringing against the merger?
7:53–10:56
5
How do the DOJ and FCC approvals reflect political influence on the transaction?
10:56–13:36
6
What role do CNN and CBS play in Trump’s media strategy for the merger?
13:36–15:21
7
Why is the merger on hold and what are the potential financial penalties for delay?
15:21–18:40
8
What does the panel conclude about the future of media ownership and political power?
18:40–21:28