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President Donald Trump\u2019s second term has been characterized thus far by America\u2019s corporate leaders<\/a>, including the owners of major media outlets<\/a>, caving to his authoritarian threats of corrupt state retaliation. But with Trump\u2019s public support cratering<\/a> to levels not seen since he encouraged a mob of his supporters to sack the U.S. Capitol in 2021, the tide may be starting to turn.<\/p> Trump demanded<\/a> in a Saturday social media post that Netflix \u201cIMMEDIATELY\u201d fire Susan Rice, who served<\/a> in senior posts in the Obama and Biden administrations, from its board of directors \u2014 or face unnamed \u201cconsequences.\u201d At issue were comments Rice made on a podcast last week about future accountability for corporations that violate the law on Trump\u2019s behalf, which MAGA media figures denounced as a sign that \u201cDemocrats are out for blood\u201d and plotting \u201cretribution.\u201d<\/p> Though the president did not detail the \u201cconsequences\u201d Netflix would suffer for failing to bow to his whim, he was responding to an ally who urged him to \u201ckill the Netflix-Warner Bros. merger now.\u201d Trump actually cannot unilaterally cancel Netflix\u2019s bid to take over Warner\u2019s theatrical and streaming assets \u2014 but his administration can force it into expensive regulatory<\/a> and court<\/a> battles. <\/p> And Warner Bros. could, in turn, decide to pull out of their deal<\/a> rather than face that scrutiny, leaving a potential acquisition open to rival bidder Paramount. That would surely be the preferred result<\/a> for Trump, and could place Warner Bros.\u2019 CNN subsidiary in the hands of Paramount\u2019s owner David Ellison, a Trump supporter whose right-skewed stewardship of CBS News has drawn praise from the president. Ellison\u2019s father, Larry Ellison, a megabillionaire and Trump ally, has reportedly already discussed with the White House which CNN hosts could be fired under their leadership.<\/p> But Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, thus far, has refused to cave to Trump\u2019s pressure. \u201cThis is a business deal. It’s not a political deal,” he told<\/a> the BBC on Monday. \u201cThis deal is run by the Department of Justice in the U.S. and regulators throughout Europe and around the world.\u201d <\/p> Sarandos defended the merger on its merits and minimized the import of the president\u2019s comments, saying, \u201cHe likes to do a lot of things on social media.\u201d<\/p> While Sarandos could still reverse himself and capitulate to Trump \u2014 or Warner Bros. could fold and switch to Paramount\u2019s bid \u2014 the Netflix head\u2019s public comments nonetheless stand out when compared to the behavior of media moguls like Jeff Bezos or Bob Iger. As we learned in Trump\u2019s first term, corporate media leaders can defeat<\/a> Trump\u2019s authoritarian tactics \u2014 but only if they are willing to stand up to him.<\/p> Rice, in a Thursday<\/a> interview<\/a>, pilloried law firms, media outlets, corporations, and others that have decided to act \u201cin their perceived very narrow self-interest\u201d to \u201ctake a knee\u201d for Trump during his second term. She repeatedly warned that if those entities violated the law, they would be \u201cheld accountable\u201d when Democrats come back into power.<\/p> \u201cIf these corporations think that the Democrats, when they come back in power, are going to, you know, play by the old rules, and say, \u2018Oh, never mind, we\u2019ll forgive you for all the people you fired, all the policies and principles you\u2019ve violated, all, you know, the laws you\u2019ve skirted,\u2019 I think they\u2019ve got another thing coming,\u201d she told former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara.<\/p> \u201cYou know, companies already are starting to hear they better preserve their documents,\u201d she added. \u201cThey better be ready for subpoenas. If they\u2019ve done something wrong, they\u2019ll be held accountable, and if they haven\u2019t broken the law, good for them.\u201d<\/p> Right-wing media figures quickly seized on Rice\u2019s comments, downplaying or ignoring the portions of her remarks in which she made clear that she was referring to entities that had broken the law in order to portray her as committing the Democrats to a campaign of retribution.<\/p> \u201cDemocrats are out for blood,\u201d Fox News host Jesse Watters said Friday on The Five<\/em>. \u201cFormer Obama lackey, Susan Rice, making it clear they want scalps if the Democrats take back power in the Midterms.<\/p> His co-host, Greg Gutfeld, added that what Rice was \u201csaying is we’ll destroy you when we come back unless you are obedient to us and do not play along,\u201d adding that her remarks were \u201cvery anti-American.\u201d<\/p>How the right-wing freakout over Susan Rice\u2019s remarks reached Trump<\/h4>