Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos will meet with President-elect Donald Trump at the president-elect’s Florida residence Mar-a-Lago, a source familiar with the meeting confirmed to TheWrap.
CNN’s Alayna Greene first reported news of the meeting. “Trump is scheduled to meet with Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos on Tuesday at Mar-a-Lago, a source familiar with the meeting tells me,” she wrote on X. “The visit comes as Trump has met with major CEOs in recent weeks.” He’ll meet later today with TikTok’s CEO, and is slated to meet w/Bezos on Wed.”
A topic for the meeting has been shared. Sarandos and his wife, Nicole Avant, are longtime donors to the Democratic Party, and Avant served as President Barack Obama’s Ambassador to the Bahamas during his first term in office.
Trump has met with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, and Apple CEO Tim Cook in recent weeks. On Wednesday, Zuckerberg’s Meta donated $1 million to Trump’s second inaugural fund, despite having not donated to President Biden’s inauguration or Trump’s first inauguration in 2017.
In November, MSNBC’s “Cup of Joe” hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, previously outspoken critics of Trump, also met with the incoming president. The visit was described by many as a betrayal; Brzezinski later said she was “surprised” by the negative backlash that followed.
Sarandos’ visit follows news that Trump settled his defamation lawsuit against ABC News and George Stephanopoulos. The news organization and anchor have agreed to publicly apologize, and ABC News will donate $15 million to a presidential foundation (which is often a presidential library or museum). The organization will also pay $1 million of Trump’s legal fees as part of the settlement.
News of the settlement was blasted by media pundits as “an awful precedent” and “one more mainstream news organization bending the knee” to the incoming administration.
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