Aiming at AT&T and Time Warner, President Trump shot from the hip and missed

President Donald Trump knew right away how he felt about AT&T’s proposed $85 billion acquisition of Time Warner. He hated it. “It’s too much concentration of power in the hands of too few,” Trump said on the day the deal was struck in October 2016, adding that, if he were elected, his administration would block the purchase. Judge Richard Leon considered the matter for several months and in a lengthy opinion June 12 ruled that President Trump’s take, shot from the hip, was off the mark. The merger of media giants can move forward, despite legal objections by the Justice Department.

It is hard to imagine that Attorney General Jeff Sessions, left to his own devices, would have brought such an unusual case that eschewed Republican business principles. President Trump made a snap judgment, as a candidate, and when the Justice Department followed through on his wishes, the result was a major loss.