"White House stock god" is both a regulator and an investor: as Netflix and Warner Bros. prepare for the "deal of the century," Trump bought their bonds.

According to the latest official White House disclosure data, U.S. President Donald Trump purchased approximately $100 million worth of municipal and corporate bonds from mid-November to the end of December. This includes the purchase of corporate bond assets issued by two Hollywood super giants - Netflix (NFLX.US) and Warner Bros. Discovery Company (WBD.US) with a total amount reaching $2 million. At the time when Trump made these large purchases of bond assets, the two Hollywood giants had just announced an ambitious streaming merger plan, with the U.S. government led by Trump playing a key role in this "Hollywood century mega-merger". Therefore, Trump's actions undoubtedly raised concerns among some Wall Street institutional investors, who believe that Trump's latest bond market operations involve some level of insider trading and significant conflicts of interest between Trump and these two Hollywood giants. According to official financial disclosure documents released on Thursday and Friday, the majority of the bond purchases made by Trump's personal investment portfolio were concentrated in municipal bonds from cities, local school districts, public utilities, and hospitals. However, he also purchased corporate bond assets from listed U.S. companies such as Boeing Company (BA.US), Occidental Petroleum Corporation (OXY.US), and General Motors Company (GM.US). These investments are the latest disclosed asset size by Trump during his second term as U.S. president, showing that his investment portfolio is actively expanding, covering multiple industries affected by Trump administration policies and certain tweets, sparking discussions about conflicts of interest and insider trading. For example, in December, Trump stated that his government would decide if Netflix could continue with its proposed $83 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, which is currently facing competition from Paramount Skydance's competitive acquisition proposal. From a regulatory perspective, any acquisition of Warner Bros. requires approval from the U.S. federal antitrust regulator led by Trump. Regarding the concerns about insider trading and conflicts of interest raised by some Wall Street institutional investors, a White House official stated on Friday that President Trump's stock and bond investment portfolio is independently managed by a third-party Financial Institutions, Inc., and Trump and his family have no authority to direct, influence, or provide opinions on how to invest in this portfolio. Like many of the wealthiest Americans, Trump regularly purchases bond assets as a significant part of his investment portfolio. A previous White House disclosure showed at least $82 million in bond purchases from late August to early October. Questions about conflicts of interest In the potential nearly $100 billion Hollywood century merger where Netflix is trying to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, the Trump administration plays an unusually active role - more participating than usual regulators. Trump publicly stated that he would personally review Netflix's acquisition of Warner Bros. and focus on potential market dominance issues that the deal may bring, including potential antitrust concerns. Reports directly mention that the regulatory process of this merger will be conducted under Trump's tenure and he has stated that he will participate in the process, which is very rare in U.S. antitrust history. In his investment disclosure, Trump showed that he purchased assets including Netflix and Warner Company bonds, with the purchases following closely after the merger announcement. This coincidence in timing has raised concerns among some Wall Street institutional investors about potential "conflicts of interest", where government leaders hold securities assets of the companies they are involved in policymaking or reviewing. In addition, reports point out that Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner plays a financing role in Paramount's bid for Warner Bros, leading critics to believe that the president's family interests may overlap with the merger competition, further intensifying concerns about potential conflicts. These factors combined form a common concern structure in the market: could the U.S. government's antitrust regulators affect the approval of significant mergers due to private investments or relationships with the president's family? The potential acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery by Netflix has become more complicated due to Paramount Skydance's competing bid, with the overall situation still in a multiple game of competition and regulatory review. For Netflix, if successful in acquiring Warner, it will have an incredibly vast IP library. For Netflix, which heavily relies on its streaming business platform for revenue, successfully acquiring Warner Bros. (including the "non-linear assets" under this deal, including Warner Bros. Studios/TV Production also tasks, HBO and HBO Max and its library) essentially means that Netflix will upgrade from a "simple platform streaming media" to an "integrated giant of platform + top studios + super library/IP," turning expensive content needing external procurement/authorization into long-term assets under its control, gaining a significant advantage in the "streaming war". For the global streaming superpower Netflix, which already has a wide range of popular IPs, swallowing Warner Bros will significantly strengthen its content moat and pricing power: the classic film library and long-running series can enhance retention, and the super IPs can drive new movies, spin-offs, games, licensing, and monetization; it can also integrate HBO's globally popular "prestige drama" capability into Netflix's global distribution system. If the deal goes through, Netflix will have popular IPs (as mentioned/repeated in public reports) mainly including numerous fantasy/super IPs such as Harry Potter/"Wizarding World" (including "Fantastic Beasts"), DC Universe (Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Suicide Squad, etc.), The Matrix series, The Conjuring series, The Lord of the Rings series, The Hobbit series, and the Dune series, among other globally popular IPs, including HBO's flagship show universe - such as the Game of Thrones series (including the spin-offs "House of the Dragon" and "Tales of Dunk and Egg").