Now that the takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery by Paramount Skydance has been given the OK by WBD shareholders, the companies are on the road to closing the deal.

But will there be potholes along the way? That seems likely, given the obstacles that arose when PSKY (the NYSE stock symbol for Paramount Skydance) was moving toward closing its deal to buy Paramount Global last year. 

That deal closed last summer after being held up for months by President Trump and his FCC because Trump was unhappy with CBS News for the way it covers him, and irritated at “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” for mercilessly poking fun at him every night.

Last July, CBS announced it would end Colbert’s show after the 2025-26 season. The company cited financial concerns.

But it was reasonable to guess that Colbert’s nightly baiting of Trump may have also presented an obstacle to closing, which coincidentally happened only about three weeks after the announcement that the company was shutting down the Colbert show. His last show is in a few weeks.

Now, Paramount and WBD are at the starting line of their own closing process. What might the obstacles be now?

If past experience is any guide, Trump could zero in on areas of the merged companies that stand in opposition to him, or so he believes.

Given all the tumult he already caused at CBS News in the run-up to the Skydance-Paramount closing, there is a good chance he will leave CBS News alone this time (one hopes).

Indeed, it seems as if Trump could be done making mischief for Paramount. With Paramount out of the way, he might now turn his attention to the WBD side of things.

There, he will find CNN and “The Daily Show,” which is hosted by long-time Trump foe Jon Stewart on Monday nights and hosted by other people Tuesday through Thursday. There is no show on Friday.

For Trump, the 63-year-old Stewart (photo above) is very much in the Colbert-Kimmel mold. Could Trump make some sort of trouble for Paramount and WBD over Stewart?

And what of CNN? The news network’s rival on the right, Fox News Channel, harangues about CNN’s perceived left-leaning biases virtually every night on shows that Trump watches.

Trump might hint around -- or blatantly declare outright -- that if CNN is kinder to him, then he will not stand in the way of the deal closing. How he defines “kindness” is anybody’s guess. 

The question is: What leverage does the FCC have in putting pressure on WBD, on behalf of Trump?

There would seem to be very little, since WBD owns no broadcast stations whose licenses could be threatened. 

“The Daily Show” is on cable -- a region where, as far as I know, the FCC has no jurisdiction.

The same goes for CNN. It’s a cable channel, not a broadcaster.

Might Trump decide to do nothing at all to delay this merger? While the odds do not favor it, maybe this time around, he has better things to do.