Donald Trump seemed to summon the ghost of “trust buster” Teddy Roosevelt Saturday, when he announced that he would have never approved of the proposed AT&T — Time Warner merger.
The Republican presidential nominee, who has often commented on media’s attempt to control the outcome of the election, referred to the consolidation of the two media giants as a few holding too great a “concentration of power.”
Here are Trump’s full comments about media consolidation– “too much concentration of power in the hands of too few” https://t.co/sBnQtBCJmi
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) October 22, 2016
“As an example of the power structure I am fighting, AT&T is buying Time Warner and thus CNN — a deal we will not approve in my administration because it’s too much concentration of power in the hands of too few,” Trump said during his “Contract for the American voter” policy speech in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
Trump’s comments anticipated The Wall Street Journal’s report several hours later that the two companies had come to an agreement for AT&T to purchase Time Warner.
The Hill reported:
The deal would likely have to be approved by a constellation of federal agencies, including the Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission.
Through the deal, the company would own both the content produced by companies like CNN and HBO and the means through which it is distributed. The company’s current offerings range from wireless service to broadband internet to video products through DirecTV.
Besides his Spanish-American War charge up Cuba’s San Juan Hill, Republican President Theodore Roosevelt is perhaps best known for as a “trust buster,” breaking up monopolies such as Standard Oil into smaller companies.
The comparison wasn’t lost on social media.
Trump channelled his inner T.R. the Trust Buster. This’s why estab. GOP is afraid of him. He can’t be controlledhttps://t.co/FWA7HFFgjy
— Kipp RN (@RJKippRN) October 23, 2016
Eisenhower was kind of a shitty president. Trump is more Teddy Roosevelt: a bomb-throwing trust-buster. https://t.co/zcDzgNFCLj
— The Kincannon Show (@kincannon_show) May 4, 2016
Donald Trump, Trust Buster? Time to bone up on my turn of the 20th Century Historyhttps://t.co/4hEM59hlAr pic.twitter.com/lxUSd0oLVW
— Mark Williams (@TalkerMark) October 22, 2016
And finally one predicted that even in the event of a Clinton win, the people wouldn’t stand for an AT&T – Time Warner merger.
@AlWilson725 @brianstelter They won’t be for much longer. Even if Hillary wins, they will not be protected from the *people*.
— Mel Willie III (@FOcusPpl) October 22, 2016
Trump took another media merger to task at Saturday’s address.
“Additionally, Comcast’s purchase of NBC concentrates far too much power in one massive entity that is trying to tell the voters what to think and what to do. Deals like this destroy democracy.”
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