Interfering with the free market by jawboning private businesses to advance his personal and political interests will be one of the darkest stains on President Donald Trump’s legacy, so why are Democrats promising further escalation?
Democratic grandee Susan Rice, who held important White House jobs the last three times her party was in power, declared last week that Democrats plan to retaliate against companies and other entities that “take a knee to Trump.” The president responded with more bad behavior, calling on Netflix to fire Rice from its board of directors or “pay the consequences.” On Monday, Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos brushed offTrump’s demand as another social media outburst.
It’s bad democratic hygiene for any president to threaten a private company if it doesn’t do what he wants, but the answer is not for the opposition to promise a never-ending spiral of retribution.
Appearing on Preet Bharara’s podcast last week, Rice predicted an “accountability agenda” from Democrats, warning companies that they “better preserve their documents” and “be ready for subpoenas.” Rice said that corporations “got another thing coming” if they think Democrats will “play by the old rules” when they retake power. That’s a chilling sentiment from a party that’s traditionally been plenty unfriendly toward business.
Rice’s solution to Trump’s meddling seems to be roving investigations into any company that plays nice with the administration. But as Bharara noted, “bending of the knee” isn’t necessarily illegal. Rice said that wrongdoing may “lie behind the scenes,” even if it isn’t immediately obvious that laws were broken. She singled out CBS, which settled a seemingly meritless lawsuit by Trump for $16 million, to help smooth the way for government approval of its parent company’s acquisition by Skydance Media. Rice called the settlement “dubious at best” and said “there ought to be inquiries.”
The problematic statements from Rice and Trump come against the backdrop of Netflix’s ongoing fight with the merged Paramount Skydance for control of Warner Bros. The only factors that should matter in the bidding war are shareholder value and the affect on consumers, but politics have crept in nonetheless. The president’s critics have wondered if Trump might try to help his perceived allies at Paramount as the Justice Department investigates Netflix for possible antitrust violations. Netflix rejects any wrongdoing. Many voices on the right have also been critical of “woke” themes in Netflix’s programming.
It isn’t crazy to question whether this president is trying to tip the scales, but Paramount could prevail simply because it has a stronger offer. Will Rice’s “accountability agenda” know the difference?
Markets will reward good business decisions and punish bad ones better than the government ever possibly could, even if it was altruistic. Republicans used to understand this, but now their leader is creating new precedents for Democrats to substitute their judgment for that of the market.
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