President Trump revealed this week that he recently met with Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos, but Seth Meyers doesn’t think it was about Netflix’s plans to acquire Warner Bros. No, the NBC host suspects Trump just wanted to get permission to have his own version of one of the streamer’s most popular series.
During his monologue on Tuesday night, Meyers first called out the length of the meeting, which was purportedly more than an hour.
“It was supposed to be a half hour, but Trump was buffering,” Meyers joke, making a double dig at Netflix’s occasional struggles to load programs (especially on major premiere nights) and Trump’s habit of appearing to doze off during important meetings.
But then, the late night host took a stab at the real reason for the meeting.
“Apparently to ask if he’s allowed to do ‘Squid Games’ on the White House lawn,” Meyers joked.
In reality, the president would need to approve Netflix’s purchase of Warner Bros., and according to reports, he said during this meeting with Sarandos that the studio should sell to the company offering the most money.
Netflix agreed to pay $82.7 billion for Warner Bros. on Friday, making what would be one of the largest media deals ever, if approved. The deal is far from set, as Paramount went hostile with their own bid on Monday morning. The Ellison family – already well-connected to Trump, and in charge of Paramount – has reportedly tried to sway Washington against the Netflix deal.
You can watch Seth Meyers’ full monologue in the video above.
