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California Attorney General Rob Bonta is doing the seemingly impossible: holding up one of the biggest mergers in media and taking on some of Hollywood’s most powerful players.
I spoke with him about his lawsuit to block Paramount’s $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, which he says would illegally concentrate power, raise prices, and cost jobs. The merger is now on hold ahead of trial.
On the other side, Paramount and its allies argue the fight is really about CNN and Democrats’ fears that Trump allies would control the network. Bonta calls that a manufactured claim and says Paramount has “lost the plot.” Selling CNN or creating an independent editorial board, he told me, wouldn’t resolve his case: “not yesterday, not today, not tomorrow. Never.”
He said any settlement would require Paramount to make “real structural remedies,” including major asset sales.
Bonta’s office is also about to start a trial over Meta’s alleged harm to children. He called this Meta’s “tobacco moment,” saying the company knew its products hurt kids and “lied about it publicly.” He indicated penalties could approach or exceed $1 trillion.
The interview has already made news here and here. Please check it out at the top of this newsletter.
Rohan is off today, we have a wonderful writer, Paige, stepping in.
In today’s newsletter: Trump claims a new territory. A judge draws the line on Idaho’s abortion ban. Can Luigi stop trial two? The Ballroom goes to the high court. Hollywood splits over the merger. For sailors on the USS Abraham Lincoln, relief may be in sight. And in News That Doesn’t Suck: The Matisse is coming home.
Here are your headlines:
Breaking Trump says he plans to declare the Strait of Hormuz a U.S. territory. Speaking on Long Island on Friday, the president said, without further explanation, he “will be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States.” Iran and Oman split jurisdiction over the waters.
Idaho’s Abortion Ban Narrowed A federal judge ruled that Idaho’s near-total abortion ban is unconstitutional and doctors must be allowed to provide abortions to protect a pregnant woman’s health, not just her life. “A pregnant woman's health is not a state resource to be allocated at the legislature's whim,” Judge B. Lynn Winmill said Thursday. Idaho has one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the nation. Currently, doctors who violate the ban can face up to five years in prison and lose their medical licenses. This ruling can be appealed.
Luigi Pleads Guilty Today, Luigi Mangione pleaded guilty to federal counts of stalking in the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Two more serious federal charges, murder through the use of a firearm and another firearm offense, were thrown out in January. “I shot Mr. Thompson and he died,” Mangione said in court on Friday. “I knew what I was doing was illegal.” The 28-year-old’s state trial is set to begin next month, but many legal experts say that the federal guilty pleas should prevent most of the state case from going forward. His defense team filed a motion to dismiss most of the state charges on “double jeopardy” grounds, which generally protects people from being tried twice for the same offense. State prosecutors oppose that argument and the state trial is scheduled for September 8. Mangione’s sentencing in the federal case is set for December 18. “Brian Thompson’s life was cut short by an act of violence that devastated everyone who knew and loved him,” a spokesperson for UnitedHealth Group said in a statement.
A Ballroom Emergency? Trump’s administration is asking the Supreme Court to allow construction to resume on his $400 million White House ballroom project after a lower court halted above-ground construction. Though the Supreme Court is currently in summer recess, Chief Justice John Roberts indicated the urgency with which they’re treating the application, by ordering the opposing side, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, to respond to the emergency request by next Tuesday at noon. The question at hand is whether the president has the authority to unilaterally build the ballroom on the site of the demolished East Wing without congressional approval. In its filing the DOJ argues that the ballroom is “vitally required by national security.” To make that point, the filing cited ongoing threats against the president, including the July incident that led the president to covertly exit Air Force One and sneak onto a second plane after a NATO summit in Turkey.
Hollywood Unions Pick Sides Hollywood unions are divided over the proposed Paramount Warner Bros merger. This week, the Directors Guild of America (DGA) and IATSE, the union that represents many of Hollywood's crews, sent an open letter calling on California AG Rob Bonta and Paramount to settle the antitrust case, saying a prolonged legal fight is bad for business. They outlined concessions they say could limit consolidation and protect Hollywood jobs. In our conversation, AG Bonta rejected those terms, saying any settlement requires “structural” changes, including the sale or spinoff of major assets. We also discuss the separate antitrust lawsuit brought by the Writers Guild of America (WGA). Hollywood Teamsters Local 399 also actively opposes Paramount Skydance’s stalled $111 billion proposed merger with Warner Bros. Discovery.
The Long Deployment May End The USS George Washington carrier group is on its way from Vietnam to replace the USS Abraham Lincoln, which has been at sea for 250 days without a single port call. A U.S. official told CNN the swap was preplanned, but it comes after Navy Times and Stars and Stripes reported worsening mental health, including reports of suicidal ideation, among the roughly 5,000 service members on board. Lawmakers are demanding answers. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth called accounts of conditions on board “completely misrepresented,” but did not directly address accounts of food shortages, water contamination, or declining mental health. President Trump told reporters the sailors' extended deployment is “not nearly long enough.”
A Wall Runs Through It Despite protests, government contractors have begun bulldozing inside Big Bend National Park in Texas as part of Trump’s $1.7 billion border construction project. As bulldozers clear brush near Santa Elena Canyon, Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) sent a letter urging DHS to reconsider the plan, arguing the park’s terrain already serves as a barrier: “My constituents believe that the 1,000-foot riverbank cliffs and remote Big Bend terrain offers its own source of deterrence for any illegal migrants crossing into the United States.”
Bessent Turns the Screws On Thursday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent vowed to increase economic pressure on Iran next week. “It will be a combination of economic isolation like the world has never seen before,” Bessent said. “And continued blockade in the Strait of Hormuz that will keep anything from going in or out of the Iranian ports.” Bessent did not provide specifics on the upcoming measures. Iran is already under heavy U.S. sanctions and faces a U.S. naval blockade that has severely restricted commerce.
Shop Till You Stop U.S. retail sales fell 0.6% in July, a steeper drop than economists expected, with consumers cutting back on spending. Figures from the Commerce Department on Friday showed online sales fell the most, dropping 2.2% last month despite Amazon Prime Day and other summer sales. Restaurants and bars saw a slight increase, with sales rising 0.5% thanks to a World Cup boost.
The Name Game, Again Donald Trump’s handpicked Kennedy Center board voted on Thursday to add the words “restored and renovated by President Donald J. Trump” on the Kennedy Center building. This comes after a federal judge ordered the board to remove the president’s name from the building in June, finding only Congress could approve that change. They also voted to close the main building for two years for renovations and suggested renaming the grounds the “President Donald J. Trump Plaza.” Trump called into the board meeting at which they held the vote. Rep Joyce Beatty (D-OH), who filed the lawsuit that got Trump’s name removed the first time, called this a “transparent effort to circumvent the Court’s ruling” and vowed to challenge it in court.
Trump’s Harvard Case Flunks Out A federal judge in Massachusetts threw out the Trump administration’s case against Harvard University and ruled that the school will not have to pay back millions in federal grants. In March, the Trump administration sued Harvard University, accusing the school of failing to protect Jewish students from discrimination when protests over the war in Gaza were taking place on campus. The DOJ further moved to withhold $2.6 billion in federal payments. The judge sided with Harvard, finding the government’s claims were “too isolated and episodic” to prove a pattern of discrimination. Harvard attorneys argued that the focus on antisemitism was a pretext for “the government’s ongoing campaign of retaliation against Harvard for refusing to capitulate to government demands and for exercising its First Amendment rights.” The DOJ says it’s considering its next steps.
Operation Puppet Master Newly disclosed government documents, first reported by the New York Times, show the Trump administration launched an investigation into progressive groups, including major labor unions, climate activists and advocacy groups in Minnesota, for alleged “domestic terrorism” related to the ICE protests there. The initial probe, “Operation Puppet Master,” involved agents going undercover to infiltrate meetings in Minnesota churches, libraries and union halls, to record protesters and collect license plate numbers. Investigators used the inquiry to build a criminal conspiracy case. A grand jury indicted 15 people, but none of the unions or nonprofits investigated were charged. The Trump administration sweeping National Security Presidential Memorandum 7, or NSPM-7, to authorize these surveillance operations.
Karoline Leaves-it White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced she’s stepping down. Leavitt, the youngest person to serve in that role, had recently returned to work after taking maternity leave following the birth of her second child. In a post, she said she wants to focus on motherhood. Trump is notoriously hard on his communications staff, blaming them for his bad press. I discuss Leavitt’s departure in a conversation with Regime Change co-author Maggie Haberman, which we will share on Monday. In announcing her departure, Trump said, “Karoline will now be one of my top outside advisors, and an influential voice within the Republican Party as we work to defy History, and conclusively win the Midterm Elections.” That designation is notable. The announcement comes as the DOJ says it intends to shield the president’s communications with “outside advisors” from public disclosure laws. Now, the president faces the task of finding her replacement.
News That Doesn’t Suck
The Art Comes Home Italian officials have arrested five people accused of stealing millions of dollars in art in a nighttime heist at a museum near Parma. In March, thieves broke into the Magnani-Rocca Foundation and made off with works by Cézanne, Renoir and Matisse. Police have recovered more than $10 million worth of art, including Paul Cézanne’s “Still Life With Cherries.” Officials say the suspects were not professional art thieves, which helped police catch them. “This was our advantage,” Italian officials told the New York Times. “They thought it would be easy.”
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