A new report has revealed that President Donald Trump personally asked a top White House aide to block AT&T from buying Time Warner (now Warner Media). Ever since the justice department sued in 2017 to block the acquisition of Time Warner, there have been several theories flying around. Now, it would appear that the mystery has been solved.
The current business dealings of AT&T and Time Warner could clear the way for one of the largest mergers in recent years. The merger itself has come with many difficulties, as the situation has been complicated by years of legal troubles. A new piece in the New Yorker reports that Trump had pressured Gary Cohn, the former director of the National Economic Council, to tell the Justice Department to block the merger.
AT&T bought Time Warner for $81 billion, making the latter a subsidiary of the former.
