Surely, Netflix knew how this would all play out.

Yes, while Friday saw Netflix announce it would pay $72 billion for Warner Bros. Discovery’s film and streaming businesses, that news was obliterated on Monday when Paramount announced its hostile bid, going directly to shareholders with a deal that would give them $17.6 billion more in cash than the Netflix deal.

Since Paramount has already paid the customary Trump tax—an eight-figure bribe to his future presidential library—they appear better equipped to win regulatory approval for the deal.

And these days, it’s the regulatory approval, not the money, that may matter most.

Normally, political writers do not have to keep abreast of the blow-by-blow details of media mergers, but now that those mergers happen only if Trump wants them to,

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