Welcome to the Beat. I'm Ari Melba. We begin tonight as Donald Trump is trying to use and sometimes

abuse power and to enrich or promote himself. The Kennedy Center honors were last night. He made

an unusual choice to host, although a president could do that, but then went farther and said he

wants to shape culture in ways that the government is directly restricted from doing.

As you've probably followed, we've mentioned on our air. There's a big deal to do a merger with

Netflix. There's other companies launching a hostile bid to get involved. We'll get into all that.

But bottom line, big picture, those things are reviewed only in a nonpartisan way by

the government for the benefit of the public interest, for consumers to make sure there's not

a monopoly or that you were charged double for Netflix. They don't usually involve politicians

or the president directly interfering for their own interests. That's the context for Donald Trump discussing the potential merger of

what are two of the largest media companies in our country and also with global reach,

Netflix and Warner Brothers.

Let's got to go through a process and we'll see what happens. It's a Netflix, a great company.

And they have a very big market share.

And when they have Warner Brothers, you know, that chair goes up a lot. So I don't know,

that's going to be for some economists to tell. And also, and I'll be involved in that decision,

but it is a big market share. There's no question about it. It could be a problem.

Fact check, true. It is a big market chair, and that is a legitimate thing for the government to test.

That's why we have a whole antitrust division of the DOJ. But legal check false. It's not for Donald Trump to be personally involved.

Indeed, we have the independence there at the DOJ, just like you have it in other economic areas or

interest rates because for many, many years, it has been settled precedent and better practice

for us, the public, to not have politicians putting their thumb on the scale.

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