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T-Mobile announced a merger needing Trump administration approval. The next day, 9 executives had reservations at Trump’s hotel.

John Legere, chief executive of T-Mobile, arrives at a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing on the impact of the T-Mobile and Sprint merger on June 27. Credit: Andrew Harrer, Bloomberg News

Last April, telecom giant T-Mobile announced a megadeal: a $26 billion merger with rival Sprint, which would more than double T-Mobile’s value and give it a huge new chunk of the cellphone market.

But for T-Mobile, one hurdle remained: Its deal needed approval from the Trump administration.

The next day, in Washington, staffers at the Trump International Hotel were handed a list of incoming “VIP Arrivals.” That day’s list included nine of T-Mobile’s top executives — including its chief operating officer, chief technology officer, chief strategy officer and chief financial officer, and its outspoken celebrity chief executive, John Legere.

View the complete January 16 article by Jonathan O’Connell and David Fahrenthold on The Washington Post website here.

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