"Pissed" Trump gets Bezos and Amazon to back down from revealing the truth about tariffs
During President Donald Trump's first term as president, he had a rough relationship with fellow billionaire Jeff Bezos. The co-founder of Amazon and a former CEO of the company, Bezos had earned Trump's ire by buying The Washington Post and using the paper as a vehicle to attack the president. But things looked like they would be different this time as Bezos appeared to be more supportive of Trump 2.0. He even donated $1 million to Trump's inauguration.
Reports said that Amazon would reveal how much Trump's tariffs raise its prices
But any warm and fuzzy feelings Trump had toward Bezos disappeared after reports were disseminated stating that Amazon considered displaying the additional cost of a tariff on certain products. This figure would appear on Amazon's website and rumors about it apparently triggered the president. Why this might be, we will get to shortly. First, let's just note that the president called Bezos complaining about Amazon's rumored plan.
White House officials were not happy to hear about Amazon's rumored plan. | Image credit-Unknown
Two White House officials said that during the phone call Trump had with Bezos, the president complained about Amazon's plan to expose the tariffs being charged on products imported by the online retailer. Trump had a different version of his conversation with Bezos calling it "a good call." Trump even went further stating that "Jeff Bezos was very nice. He was terrific. He solved the problem very quickly. Good guy." It's likely that the president would have had a different opinion of Bezos and the phone call had the Amazon Executive Chairman not given in to him.
After all, Punchbowl News first reported today that Amazon would soon "display how much of an item's cost is derived from tariffs — right next to the product’s total listed price." This would show consumers how much Trump's tariffs are pushing up prices in the U.S. It also would call out Trump's long time lie that countries hit with a tariff by the US send money to the US Treasury. Tariffs are import taxes that U.S. companies and consumers pay. Amazon's figures would have exposed the lie.
For example, using the 145% tariff on China as an example, US firms importing products from China would have to pay a 145% tax when shipping products into the U.S. from China. Companies affected by the tax could eat them hurting their profit margin, or pass the higher price on to consumers in the form of higher prices. One administration official granted anonymity by CNN noted that the president was pissed after hearing the reports about Amazon's plan. "Of course he was pissed," this official said. "Why should a multibillion-dollar company pass off costs to consumers?" Obviously this Trump official missed the whole point about why Amazon would want consumers to know about the tariffs and where they come from.
Trump wants to move more production to the United States
Trump's plan is to force more companies to build their products in the US. For example, the president talks about having Apple build the iPhone in the States, an honorable goal. However, such a move would transfer thousands of low paying assembly jobs into the US. Even if pay checks were higher for iPhone assemblers in America, Apple would be forced to raise the price of the product which would raise inflation in the United States.
Putting a spin on the whole thing was White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt who called Amazon's rumored plan a "hostile and political act." Other Trump faithful threw in their 2 cents (now up to 5 cents due to tariffs). Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick agreed that Amazon's rumored action would be a hostile act since it involves a company going out of its way to "make it seem" like tariffs have caused prices to change. Note to Mr. Lutnick: Tariffs do cause prices to change because every American company will not eat the additional costs and some will pass the tax on to consumers.
An Amazon spokesman said that it never considered showing on its main website how tariffs would raise prices. The spokesman said, "This was never approved and not going to happen." Do you believe that or do you believe that Trump yelled at Jeff Bezos until he agreed to kill Amazon's plan? Let us know your response by dropping it in one of the comment boxes below.
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