Trump changes tune on AT&T-Time Warner merger

Donald Trump backtracked on his promise to block AT&T's proposed $86 billion takeover of Time Warner, during an interview with Axios in which the President-Elect is beginning to recognize the complexities of his new job.

I have been on the record in the past of saying it's too big and we have to keep competition. So, but other than that, I haven't, you know, I haven't seen any of the facts, yet. I'm sure that will be presented to me and to the people within government.

It's not too often you hear a politician admit to knowing virtually nothing about an issue on which he's already taken a public stand. Or that he didn't asked to be briefed before meeting last week with AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson (who said the merger wasn't discussed).

As Mike and Jim wrote this morning: "We found the incoming president unusually subdued: lowering expectations, acknowledging some of the messy realities of governing, and walking back some of the more provocative statements he had made only days before. "