David Zaslav is looking for friends. Well, one friend, specifically: the guy who currently holds all of the levers of power, including ones that could significantly impact his business, Warner Bros. Discovery. According to a profile from New York Magazine, the head of WBD knows that his industry is on shaky ground and he’s looking to cozy up to Donald Trump as a means of survival.
Zaslav isn’t the first to have this idea. The tech billionaires like Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk have certainly managed to solidify their position through some shameless pandering, and it’s worked out pretty well for them (so far, at least—we’ll see if Zuck can leverage his friendship to wriggle out of an antitrust lawsuit). But, per New York Magazine, a person in Trump’s orbit has a different tech god-king for Zaslav to model: Jeff Bezos.
The parallel is pretty simple. Bezos has used his media arm to make nice with Trump, mostly by flattering his family and giving them a lot of money—including ponying up $40 million for a Melania Trump documentary that she’ll serve as a producer on. Zaslav has basically nothing but airtime to offer, and Trump loves flattering coverage from the media. Suggestions provided to Zaslav, per NYMag, included a hunting and fishing show starring Donald Trump, Jr. (that’d be fascinating, given his penchant for allegedly illegal and unethical hunting tactics) and adding more pro-Trump voices to the WBD-owned CNN.
Sucking up to Trump this way would likely come across as extremely transparent favor-trading, but what’s a CEO to do? Plus, Zaslav might have some business he’d probably like to fast-track through approval if he can. Last year, he told Bloomberg that he was hoping the next president would bring a new attitude to mergers because “We just need an opportunity for deregulation, so companies can consolidate and do what we need to to be even better.”
It’s not clear if WBD has any acquisition targets in mind at the moment, though it does seem he’s willing to do whatever he needs to keep the company going (except take a pay cut, seeing as he took home $52 million last year). And if you want to do a media deal, you’ll definitely need Trump on your side. When Time Warner was going to sell to AT&T during Trump’s first term, he tried to step in to block it. And just last night, he called for the FCC to fine and potentially pull the license of CBS over a “60 Minutes” segment he didn’t like.
So keep your eyes open for “Hunted To Extinction,” a new show where Donald Trump, Jr. kills the last of an endangered species every week, coming soon to Max.
