Given the President’s long-standing support for corporate tax cuts and deregulation of industry, this pusillanimity is perhaps not so surprising. Still, during Trump’s first term, business leaders did occasionally mount some opposition. Of course, some prominent entrepreneurs who are, or at least were, aligned with Trump are themselves media owners or investors. “America could end up with two of its major social-media companies, plus CBS News and CNN, in the hands of Trump supporters,” Nyhan noted. At the time, CBS’s parent company, Paramount, was looking to complete its merger with Skydance, which required approval from Trump’s F.C.C.