Comcast clued investors in to its potential M&A aspirations on Thursday. In short, executives think a deal could get done, despite recent naysaying.

Comcast is among the interested parties in a potential deal for Warner Bros. Discovery. WBD — the owner of TNT Sports, CNN, HBO, Warner Bros. studio and other media assets — officially put itself up for sale after “receiving interest from multiple parties,” WBD CEO David Zaslav said in a statement last week.

Several pundits and analysts have posited that Comcast has little to no chance to do a deal from a regulatory perspective, given President Donald Trump’s pointed words for Comcast CEO and controlling shareholder Brian Roberts. Others say the path forward may not be doomed.

On Thursday, alongside the company’s third-quarter earnings report, soon-to-be co-CEO Mike Cavanagh shed some light on how executives view the situation, without specifically naming Warner Bros. Discovery as a potential tie-up.

“I think more things are viable than maybe some of the public commentary that’s out there,” Cavanagh said Thursday.

Trump in April called Comcast and Roberts “a disgrace to the integrity of Broadcasting” in a post on his social media platform, Truth Social. Trump has also called Roberts a “lowlife” and has referred to Comcast as “Concast.”

Some equity research analysts have predicted that the Trump administration would block a Comcast acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. WBD is still moving toward a planned separation into two publicly traded entities while it expands its strategic review.

Paramount is trying to buy the whole company, before it could split, and WBD has thus far rejected three separate offers from the David Ellison-run company.

“It is almost certain that the Trump DOJ would not allow CMSCA to buy WBD and the result would be decided in court,” New Street Research analyst Blair Levin wrote in a note to clients, citing Trump’s public comments about Roberts.

“We along with our cable colleagues believe [Comcast’s] political standing in this administration is very low and believe CMCSA would think long and hard about whether a deal is worth the long, arduous process of creating enough goodwill to close the deal,” wrote Raymond James analyst Ric Prentiss.

While Paramount’s interest is in the entirety of Warner Bros. Discovery, negating a split, other prospective bidders have considered acquiring just some of the assets, CNBC has reported.

Cavanagh said, “In light of that, what we’d be looking for and what we’re going to look like post-Versant spin,” a deal isn’t as far-fetched as some view it.

In a hypothetical situation in which Comcast were to also spin off NBCUniversal, which is currently slated to remain with the company following the Versant transaction, and merge it with WBD, LightShed analyst Rich Greenfield predicted that deal could get through regulators.

Wolfe Research’s Peter Supino proposed a plan under which NBCUniversal would issue new stock to WBD at an exchange ratio, eliminating Roberts’ voting control over the new company, and appoint a chairman and CEO “not named Roberts.” That combination could lead to a deal, he wrote in a note to clients.

“The primary problems facing a Comcast bid — financing and politics — might be solvable,” Supino wrote.

While Comcast may shy away from pursuing a transaction that could be blocked by the Trump DOJ, even that may not be a dealbreaker.

In the first Trump term, his DOJ blocked AT&T’s acquisition of Time Warner, an earlier iteration of Warner Bros. Discovery. In June 2018, a U.S. District Court judge approved the $85.4 billion sale, ruling the government failed to prove the deal would harm consumers.

Comcast is one of 37 companies donating to Trump’s efforts to build a $300 million ballroom for the White House through the Trust for the National Mall.

Trump’s public dislike toward Roberts and Comcast may be bloviation linked to Trump’s assertions that MSNBC, currently owned by NBCUniversal, is left-leaning. It’s unclear if Trump explicitly cares about Comcast or NBCUniversal owning any of the WBD assets other than CNN, which Trump has also routinely criticized.

If his primary issue with Comcast buying WBD is CNN, a divestiture or deal without the network could circumvent those issues. MSNBC will also be spun out into the Versant portfolio.

While Roberts will still be a shareholder of Versant, MSNBC will no longer be a part of Comcast once Versant becomes its own publicly traded company at the start of 2026.

Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal, which owns CNBC. Versant would become the new parent company of CNBC upon Comcast’s planned spinoff of Versant.

Delta Air Lines and United Airlines called on Congress Thursday to reopen the U.S. government and pay air traffic controllers, with Delta urging senators to “immediately pass a clean continuing resolution.”

U.S. air traffic controllers missed their first full paychecks on Tuesday as the government shutdown drags on through a fourth week with no end in sight while Republican and Democratic senators remain at an impasse.

“Missed paychecks only increases the stress on these essential workers, many of whom are already working mandatory overtime to keep our skies safe and secure,” Delta said in a statement Thursday.

Delta CEO Ed Bastian had warned earlier this month that the airline could see impacts from a prolonged shutdown.

Vice President JD Vance and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy hosted a roundtable at the White House Thursday afternoon with the lobby group Airlines for America, whose members include Delta, United, American Airlines and others.

United CEO Scott Kirby told reporters outside the White House that Congress should pass a clean continuing resolution, adding that the shutdown is putting stress on the economy.

Air traffic controllers and Transportation Security Administration officers are essential employees who are required to work through the shutdown even though they are not receiving regular paychecks.

The missed paychecks come as controllers grapple with a longstanding staffing shortage. There are 3,800 fewer fully certified controllers than the FAA’s target, according to Nick Daniels, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association.

“These additional distractions will compound the existing risks in an already strained system,” Daniels said in an opinion piece in The Hill on Tuesday.

“Every day the shutdown continues, the National Airspace System becomes less safe than it was the day before, as the controllers’ focus shifts from their critical safety tasks to their financial uncertainty,” he said.

The shutdown began on Oct. 1 after Senate Republicans and Democrats failed to reach an agreement to keep the government open.

Democratic senators are insisting that Republicans agree to extend enhanced Affordable Care Act health insurance subsidies before they will vote for funding to reopen the government.

The Congressional Budget Office estimated Wednesday that a four-week shutdown would cost the economy at least $7 billion by the end of 2026. A six-week shutdown would cost the economy $11 billion, and an eight-week shutdown would cost $14 billion, according to CBO estimates.

Flights have been delayed at several U.S. airports over the past month but the severe disruptions that preceded the end of the longest-ever shutdown, between late 2018 and early 2019, have not occurred.

— CNBC’s Leslie Josephs contributed to this report.