But the idea of a president abusing his power to financially punish companies over news coverage he doesn’t like is nonetheless disturbing. On Thursday, The Daily Caller, citing “a source familiar with President Trump’s thinking,” reported that the White House won’t support the mega-media deal if Zucker remains atop the news network. When AT&T announced its plan in October to buy Time Warner, Trump expressed opposition. The Hollywood Reporter’s Michael Wolff wrote in March that Trump may try scuttling the AT&T-Time Warner deal to keep that campaign pledge or perhaps try extracting concessions, such as CNN getting spun off in the deal or Zucker being out of a job. Despite the recent chatter about Trump possibly interfering out of anger toward CNN, the acquisition is expected to proceed as planned.

Source: Huffington Post July 06, 2017 22:05 UTC