On Oct. 22, 2016, the same day that AT&T reached a deal to buy Time Warner for $108.7 billion, Trump vowed on the campaign trail that his administration would block it, saying it would unfairly concentrate power in the marketplace..

But while he tried, he didn't succeed.

Presidents cannot reject or approve mergers and acquisitions, but they can appoint people to departments that oversee them, which Trump did with Makan Delrahim, who serves as the assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's antitrust division. Delrahim's appointment was approved by the Senate in September 2017.

About two months later, the antitrust division announced it was suing to block AT&T's bid. But a federal judge rejected the DOJ's assertion that the deal would substantially reduce market competition and approved the acquisition in June 2018.

U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon said the DOJ didn't prove that AT&T's acquisition of Time Warner would raise prices for television and internet services and limit consumer choice in a way that would be "likely to lessen competition substantially." He did not impose conditions on the deal.

While AT&T officially completed the acquisition days later, the DOJ made a last-ditch appeal on July 11, 2018. 

The effort failed in February 2019, after a three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia backed the deal unanimously. The DOJ said it would not pursue further litigation in the case.

The acquisition is complete, and the U.S. government lost its final appeal. We rate this Promise Broken.