Thursday, December 12, 2024

Steven Mnuchin May Be A Problem as Treasury Secretary: He Funds TimeWarner Movies, Trump Opposes Company’s Merger with AT&T

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Donald Trump wants to appoint Steve Mnuchin as Secretary of the Treasury. But Mnuchin’s real job is being one third of RatPac, the company that funds a lot of Warner Bros. movies. His partners are director Brett Ratner and ex Mariah Carey fiance (and sometime Aussie Scientologist) James Packer. Warner Bros. is as in Time Warner, which wants to merge with AT&T. Does Trump remember he opposes the merger? He said so rather vehemently just last month:

Of course Trump can go back on his word. He does that a lot. He’s the president of the contradiction. Or he can just pretend this never happened.
But he did say “Deals like this destroy democracy.”
In 2013 RatPac Dune Entertainment entered into an agreement to fund 75 Warner Bros. movies. At least. Just this year they funded Warner Bros’ “The Accountant,” “Sully,” “Suicide Squad,” and so on. RatPac and WB are now inextricably tied to each other. But WB is a major part of Time Warner, and they want to merge with AT&T. How does the Treasury Secretary resolve that with his position in the company?
It’s going to be a long winter of discontent. My guess is, the merger goes through.

Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News, where he created the Fox411 column. His movie reviews are carried by Rotten Tomatoes, and he is a member of both the movie and TV branches of the Critics Choice Awards. His articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. He is also the writer and co-producer of "Only the Strong Survive," a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals, directed by DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus.

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