On Sunday, President Donald Trump declared that he will “be involved” in the federal government’s decision on whether to allow the streaming service Netflix to buy mass media and entertainment conglomerate Warner Brothers Discovery. On Monday, Paramount Skydance, another mass media and entertainment conglomerate, announced a hostile takeover bid for WBD — with news soon following that Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner’s private equity firm is part of the Paramount offer.

“Paramount is telling WBD shareholders that it has a smoother path to regulatory approval than does Netflix, and Kushner’s involvement only strengthens that case,” Axios reported. “Paramount is led by David Ellison, whose billionaire father Larry is a major supporter of President Trump.”

Axios added that Kushner’s firm, Affinity Partners, “was not mentioned in Paramount’s press release on Monday morning about its $108 billion bid, nor were participating sovereign wealth funds from Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Qatar.”

READ MORE: White House: Trump to Spin ‘Positive’ News About Jobs as Layoffs Spike

Fortune reported that “Affinity and the other outside financing partners have agreed to forgo any governance rights, which Paramount said means the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States would have no jurisdiction over the transaction.”

But Axios’ Sarah Fischer wrote on social media: “Ask yourself, why would anyone want to put money into an investment of this caliber and have no governance rights or board seats?”

“Essentially,” she added, “people want to have control/access/political power behind the scenes.”

“Reality is,” Fischer explained, this hostile takeover is a good explanation “of how capitalism/democracy can be exploited for political gain,” with “Paramount essentially betting our open system incentivizes shareholders to take [the] best financial deal even if it means giving soft power” to three sovereign wealth funds, the President, and his son-in-law.

READ MORE: ‘Chance Some of This Backfires’: GOP Grows Anxious Over Trump’s Redistricting Gambit

Critics are blasting Kushner’s and Trump’s involvement.

U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) remarked, “Donald Trump said he’ll ‘be involved in’ deciding if Netflix can buy Warner Bros. Is that an open invite for CEOs to curry favor with Trump in exchange for merger approvals? It should be an independent decision by the Department of Justice based on the law and facts.”

Award-winning journalist Sophia A. Nelson, responding to trump’s remarks, observed: “This is ridiculous. Corrupt. And NOT what a President gets involved in.”

Professor, investor, and marketing executive Adam Cochran wrote: “Trump is talking about him personally being involved in deciding the fate of the Netflix-Warner Brothers deal, and how it’s ‘bad.’ Meanwhile his son-in-law is financing the competing offer. There has truly never been a more corrupt administration in US history!”

Alexander Vindman, former Director of European Affairs for the United States National Security Council (NSC), wrote: “F– NO to another corrupt Trump deal. Nepobaby, Jared’s, involvement would deliver CNN to MAGA.”

NewsNation’s Kurt Bardella, a communications advisor and media relations consultant, asked: “Alexa, what is a ‘conflict-of-interest’?”

READ MORE: Trump’s Ballroom Seen as ‘Key Evidence’ He’s Out of Touch as Cost of Living Spikes

Image via Reuters 

As layoffs hit record levels, unemployment has risen to a near-four-year high, manufacturing continues to contract, and the U.S. faces “persistent” inflation, the White House says President Donald Trump will be sharing with the American people the “positive” news about jobs, incomes, and inflation.

“The American people don’t know how good they have it,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sunday on “Face the Nation.” After blaming Democrats for “scarcity,” he insisted that “next year we’re going to move on to prosperity.”

Kevin Hassett, the Director of the White House’s National Economic Council told CNBC on Monday, “There’s a huge amount of positive news that the president is going to be breaking this week about the economy.”

READ MORE: ‘Chance Some of This Backfires’: GOP Grows Anxious Over Trump’s Redistricting Gambit

“And so there’s a lot of positive news that’s positive for people’s jobs, for people’s incomes, and for inflation. And President Trump is just going to go out there and remind people of that,” said Hassett, who is rumored to be in line to be Trump’s pick to head the Federal Reserve.

Once again, Hassett turned to Trump’s first term to offer positive examples.

Hassett said, “going back to the eye of the horizon … President Trump’s economic policies were profoundly popular just before COVID, in his first term, because he had $6,500 of income growth after the big tax cuts.”

He added that next year, “the typical person who’s got no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, is probably gonna see an extra $1,600 to $2,000. A lot of that will come as tax refunds in the beginning of the year.”

Hassett appeared aware that Trump’s polling on the economy is underwater.

READ MORE: Trump’s Ballroom Seen as ‘Key Evidence’ He’s Out of Touch as Cost of Living Spikes

“As Americans voice broad concerns about the economy,” The New York Times reported late last week, “Mr. Trump is facing discontent from across the political spectrum, with even some of his longest-serving allies raising complaints and urging the administration to refocus on economic issues.”

“Across surveys,” the Times added, “voters express frustration with the current state of the economy. A majority of voters said they had been hurt by Mr. Trump’s economy in the Fox News poll, and three-quarters of Americans said their grocery costs had gone up in the past year, according to polling from Marquette University Law School. Just 26 percent said Mr. Trump was doing a good job at managing the cost of living, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.”

But Hassett insisted that “people are going to look at their wallets and say, ‘Oh boy, this guy’s really making me better off.’ And in the end, that’s more important than any poll.”

Kevin Hassett on Trump’s economic message: “There’s a lot of positive news that positive for people’s jobs, for people’s incomes, and for inflation, and President Trump is just going to go out there and remind people of that.” pic.twitter.com/SwrblunvQE

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 8, 2025

READ MORE: Inside Trump’s ‘Golden Age’: Troubling New Trends Emerge

Image via Reuters

Months ago, when President Donald Trump urged Texas to redraw its congressional maps in a manner that — he said — would hand Republicans an additional five seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, he launched what has become a sweeping mid-decade redistricting push spanning more than a dozen red and blue states.

Trump has pressed additional GOP-led states to join Texas in mid-decennial redistricting — a rare exercise given that congressional districts, per the U.S. Constitution, are reapportioned based on each decade’s census. But now, some Republicans are expressing anxiety over this all-out effort.

“Worried Republicans say basing redistricting on the 2024 election is a sizable leap,” The Washington Post reported, “both because Trump’s coalition has not shown a willingness to show up when he isn’t on the ballot and polls show Trump is hemorrhaging support from key groups in his unique coalition.”

READ MORE: Trump’s Ballroom Seen as ‘Key Evidence’ He’s Out of Touch as Cost of Living Spikes

Republican operative Annalyse Keller told Meet the Press Now, “I am not confident that that Trump coalition in a midterm election is going to stay with Republicans.”

“There might be a chance that some of this backfires,” Keller added.

Trump’s poll numbers are at their lowest of his second term, and Democrats in some races have shown they are outperforming 2024 election numbers. The electorate is changing, and some groups that moved over to Trump in 2024 have already begun backing away in 2025.

“At the heart of these concerns are Latino voters, who are central to the Texas redistricting plan and were expected to be key to whatever Republicans decide to do in Florida,” the Post reported. “Trump made inroads with Latino voters in 2024, especially with Latino men, which helped propel him to victory in key battleground states. But Trump’s standing with Latino voters has fallen off a cliff in recent months.”

READ MORE: Speaker Johnson Insists ‘Best Days Ahead’ as GOP Infighting Boils Into Open Revolt

The Post cited a November Pew Research Center survey that “found 70 percent of Latinos ‘disapprove of the way Trump is handling his job as president,’ and 61 percent said ‘Trump’s economic policies have made economic conditions worse,’ a notable finding because the economy was a primary reason 43 percent of Latino voters backed Trump in 2024.”

Pollster and former advisor to Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2024 presidential campaign, Matt A. Barreto, told the Post: “So if someone is redistricting and they are trying to draw Republican performances based on Trump-Harris characteristics, they are going to be wrong in 2026, because 2025 has already shown us this.”

Redrawing congressional maps in an effort to pick up GOP seats can make solid Republican districts more competitive.

Indeed, the Post reported that “Republicans are moving Republican support from GOP-friendly districts to make these new districts lean more toward the GOP, effectively making former stronghold districts more competitive — the opposite, say these Republicans, of what a party should do ahead of an election that is expected to go against them.”

READ MORE: Inside Trump’s ‘Golden Age’: Troubling New Trends Emerge

Image via Reuters