OA1215 - We examine why the potential merger of Warner Brothers Discovery with either Netflix or Paramount would almost be certainly illegal under better circumstances before mourning the imminent loss of the independence of the one government agency which is supposed to stop this kind of thing. What exactly is the Federal Trade Commission, and why was destroying it a top priority for Project 2025? We then take a closer look at this week’s oral arguments in Trump v. Slaughter, in which the Supreme Court’s MAGA majority is poised to turn the FTC and dozens of other independent agencies into tools for Trump’s corruption and graft. Finally, in today’s footnote: why is an actual government website hawking the Trump Gold Card, and can the President really just make up a completely new way to give anyone with one million dollars a new path to US citizenship?

1. Trump v. Slaughter oral arguments (12/8/2025)

2. Humphrey’s Executor v. US, 295 US 602 (1935)

3. Federal Trade Commission Act (1914)

4. Rebecca Slaughter’s SCOTUS brief

5. Trumpcard.gov

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