At Subcommittee Hearing, Democrats Show How Trump’s Politicization of Antitrust Enforcement, Merger Review Is Enriching Trump and Harming Americans

Washington, D.C. (January 7, 2026)—Today, Rep. Jamie Raskin, Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Jerrold Nadler, Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust, led Democrats in raising concerns about how massive deals involving Netflix, Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) and Paramount are being politicized under President Trump, who has abandoned proper antitrust enforcement.

The hearing included testimony from: Matt Wood, Vice President of Policy and General Counsel, Free Press; Jay Ezrielev, Ph.D., Founder & Managing Principal, Elevecon; Jessica Melugin, Director, Center for Technology & Innovation, Competitive Enterprise Institute; and John M. Yun, Ph.D., Professor, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University.

Efforts by Netflix and Paramount—WBD competitors—to acquire WBD raise significant antitrust and public policy concerns. Meanwhile, the Trump Administration is politicizing antitrust, specifically merger review, to benefit the President’s cronies and force pro-Trump media content.

• Ranking Member Raskin said: “In ordinary times, we’d proceed carefully with an acquisition of this size to ensure that it passes scrutiny under American antitrust laws. But these are not ordinary times. Just last month, this subcommittee heard testimony from whistleblower Roger Alford, who served in Antitrust at the DOJ during both the first and second Trump terms. [...] He testified to ‘the pervasive practice of lobbyists attempting to corruptly influence antitrust law enforcement’ at the Department of Justice, telling us the corporate lobbyists now boast about their ability to overrule both the antitrust experts and President Trump’s own hand-picked leadership at the Antitrust Division.” 
   
• Rep. Becca Balint said: “At the last meeting of this subcommittee, Roger Alford, DOJ whistleblower, described the pay-to-play climate at the Antitrust Division. And President Trump recently has said he will be ‘involved’ in the Warner Bros. deal. What do you think he means by that, when he says he’s going to be involved? What’s he talking about?” Mr. Wood explained: “I think it’s just about the Trump family’s own fates and fortunes here. And these political choices. [...] The government should not be imposing its will on companies. That’s a violation of the First Amendment, when they’re dangling antitrust review and approval based on content changes. And of course, as we’re all saying, this should be a market analysis.”
   
• Ranking Member Raskin said: “If Paramount were to acquire Warner Bros., it would put CNN under the same ownership as CBS. When the Ellisons, who own Skydance, were seeking to acquire Paramount, they made Trump-friendly changes in the newsroom, including installing an ombudsman, which news staff referred to as a ‘hall monitor’ for them. So, we can only assume the same kind of fate for CNN. Mr. Wood, when there is consolidation in the news media, how does this affect the freedom of speech and expression in the marketplace for ideas generally and specifically in the Trump period, given the very specific phenomena that have arisen in terms of the review process?” Mr. Wood explained: “There really are two distinct threats at least. One is, just typically speaking, when you have fewer competing voices, you have fewer people working to get stories, you have fewer risk takers. So, reduction of competition reduces the number of opportunities to even tell different stories. But in this Administration, we’ve seen not just consolidation writ large as a problem—it’s the merger process itself being used as a carrot, and basically saying, if you don’t agree to change your news coverage, then we won’t approve your deal. And that’s the kind of thing that should be completely out of bounds but has happened very often with this Administration.” 

Republicans are refusing to conduct any oversight on how the Trump Administration’s corrupt approach to antitrust harms U.S. competition and innovation, as well as American consumers and workers.

• Rep. Balint said: “Americans don’t like these mergers. They don’t want a few giant companies controlling what they see and what they hear. We want choices. We want more choices. We want artistic freedom. And we don’t want a handful of companies deciding the content that we see. I hear this over and over again from my constituents. When these giant companies merge, things get better for the people at the top, over and over again every single time, and worse for the rest of us.” 
   
• Rep. Lou Correa cited opposition to these mergers from labor groups, adding “These folks are concerned about their jobs.” When asked by Rep. Correa if they expected these mergers to result in job losses, witnesses either expected job losses or were unsure.
   
• Ranking Member Nadler said: “Hollywood unions such as the Writers Guild are opposing acquisition by either Netflix or Paramount because of concerns that consolidation will reduce employment compensation and creative opportunities. What happens to independent producers and creators when the number of potential buyers for their work shrinks?” Mr. Wood explained: “We’ve spoken to some of those writers, we’ve spoken to some of those independent producers. They’re very concerned, and rightly so. When the number of buyers for their work shrinks, it’s not just that there are fewer open doors, there are fewer doors at all. So they have fewer places they can take their content. They also have the loss of competition and diversification in the market. Fewer, smaller, independent producers, or fewer scrappy competitors who are willing to take a chance on something different. So, I think it tends to homogenize content and, by design, reduce the number of outlets and number of choices they have.” 
   
• Rep. Chuy García said: “Another important goal of antitrust enforcement is protecting workers from anti-competitive and abusive practices. Of course, this deal is just the latest in a series of mega mergers in the entertainment industry. Every time the companies promise to protect workers, every time they betray workers. After Disney acquired FOX, 4,000 jobs were lost. In the years after the AT&T-Time Warner merger, 77,000 workers were laid off. And since merging with Skydance only months ago, Paramount has already laid off a thousand workers and promised to lay off thousands more in the coming months.” 
   
• Ranking Member Raskin said: “Each new merger acts as a new opportunity for the president to enrich himself and his family and friends. [...] Ladies and gentlemen, this is not antitrust law. This is a political and financial shakedown substituting for an antitrust merger review. It’s got nothing to do with antitrust law or consumer choice or lower prices. It is corruption.”