Paramount announced it was delaying its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, pausing a deal expected to bring big changes to Hollywood.

Why? Democrats did everything they could to stop the merger, including filing a lawsuit to block it.

The merger is still expected to proceed once the litigation is resolved in court. But it’s just another example of how Democrats are getting back to their anti-market, anti-business roots.

No one is allowed to merge. No one is allowed to achieve greater scale. Profit is a dirty word.

The Trump administration takes a different approach. It’s not afraid to use antitrust law to protect consumers while also letting free enterprise thrive.

Earlier this year, before Paramount came knocking, Warner Bros. was planning to merge with Netflix. Then Trump expressed skepticism, and with good reason. The deal would have concentrated an enormous amount of market power inside Netflix — already the world’s number one streaming service and no slouch in content production either — with a history of dramatically raising costs on the American people.

There were genuine antitrust concerns about the effects of a Netflix-WBD behemoth. This led Netflix to ultimately withdraw and WBD to announce it would merge with Paramount instead.

Yet Democrats are still crying foul, accusing Trump of being an agent of big business for approving this deal. At the same time, the Trump administration has been willing to take direct stakes in companies such as Intel in order to counter mercantilist policies pursued by China.

Are we witnessing a political realignment in business regulation? One where traditional Left/Right arguments as to the proper role of government are being altered? The jury is still out on that question, but at least on the Democratic side, that old anti-business itch remains irresistible.

As the Biden administration’s litigation-happy antitrust strategy under then-FTC chair Lina Khan showed, Democrats never really abandoned their belief that government should always question private-sector actions — even if the proposed actions don’t raise consumer costs.

For example, Democrats recently hit the warpath over budget airlines — even though these carriers are often Americans’ best chance to afford a vacation. Under Khan, the Biden administration successfully blocked Spirit Airlines from merging with JetBlue, which would have provided it with additional capital and prevented it from shutting its doors. Democratic attorneys general also worked to block that merger despite the lower fares benefiting consumers.

The result? Spirit had no choice but to cease operations entirely in May amid rising fuel prices. Airline prices rose dramatically overnight. Consumers now have fewer airline choices.

Or consider when tech company Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) announced it would acquire Juniper Networks. The Trump administration waived the merger through, drawing instant blowback from Democrats. Intelligence agencies had insisted the combined HPE-Juniper company would provide needed competition for Huawei, the Chinese giant considered a national security threat that controls over 30% of the world’s telecom market.

Naturally, Democrats are still trying to block this business deal through the courts.

This is before we even get to the Left’s bread-and-butter anti-business crusades. Energy companies are bracing for an onslaught of lawfare if Democrats win the midterm elections. Firearms manufacturers are being driven out of blue states and into red ones.

Some Democrats have even pledged to unwind mergers approved by Trump if they take back control of Congress. Imagine the unpredictability that will create for American businesses.

Why are Democrats reclaiming their anti-business roots? One reason is the Democratic Party agenda is being driven by so-called “democratic socialists,” who despise free enterprise and excoriate successful job creators. Democratic socialist New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has personally attacked business leaders while promoting ever higher taxes and dramatically increased spending.

It was no surprise when Mamdani hired Lina Khan into his administration. Mamdani hates anyone who makes a profit, thinks the government should own grocery stores, and intends to drive private landlords out of New York so the government can own more housing. If Khan’s record is any indication, she wholeheartedly agrees.

While popular with some now, Mamdani’s socialist experiment is doomed to failure. As Margaret Thatcher once quipped, “the only trouble with socialism is eventually you run out of other people’s money.”

Yet the rise of democratic socialism and the failure of more centrist Democrats to prevail in primaries means even more attacks against the private-sector economy are on the way.

To be sure, not every business combination is in the public interest. Some — like the Netflix-WBD merger — risk shoring up monopolies. But others — like Paramount-WBD — can create competition for market leaders like Netflix and bring down prices.

It’s complicated, and this seems to be where conservatives have landed: assess mergers and corporate behavior on the merits. The Democrats, meanwhile, fundamentally oppose free enterprise capitalism and seek to stoke jealousy and class resentment as a means to achieve political power.

It remains to be seen which side will prevail. Let’s make sure it isn’t the socialists.

***

John Faso is an attorney and former Republican congressman representing New York’s 19^th congressional district.

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Democrats Fighting The Warner Bros. Merger Are Making Americans’ Lives Harder And More Expensive