Trump Applauds Bezos After Amazon Refutes Claim It Planned To Display Tariff Costs
The White House took aim at Amazon on Tuesday after the e-commerce giant reportedly prepared to directly display to consumers the price increases associated with President Donald Trump's tariffs—with Trump calling Amazon founder Jeff Bezos personally to complain—but the retailer denied it considered implementing such a wide-sweeping effort.
Citing an unnamed source with knowledge of the plan, Punchbowl News reported Amazon, which relies on China for just more than 50% of its third-party sellers, intends to show how much of a good's cost on the site comes from tariffs.
In a Tuesday briefing with reporters, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt slammed this as a 'hostile and political act by Amazon,' saying she discussed the matter with Trump.
Trump called Bezos on Tuesday morning to complain about the reports, two senior officials in the White House told CNN, adding the president was 'pissed.'
Trump confirmed Tuesday afternoon he talked to 'good guy' Bezos, who 'did the right thing' and 'solved the problem very quickly,' according to the president.
Amazon spokesperson Tim Doyle told the Bezos-owned Washington Post there was 'never a consideration for the main Amazon site' to display the levy-related fees to consumers, but wrote in a statement to Forbes the company 'considered the idea of listing import charges on certain products' on its ultra-discount Haul platform.
The Haul tariff price listing was 'never approved and not going to happen,' added Doyle.
Amazon stock declined more than 2% on Tuesday morning following Leavitt's jab at the retailer, recovering to a flat daily move as tensions smoothed over.
'Why didn't Amazon do this when the Biden administration hiked inflation to the highest level in 40 years?,' Leavitt questioned Tuesday. It's not exactly a one-for-one comparison considering tariffs directly equate to higher import costs, while inflation under President Joe Biden was a confluence of several factors with uneven effects on different classes of goods.
Leavitt declined to comment on the 'president's relationship with Jeff Bezos,' the Amazon chairman who dined with Trump at the latter's Mar-a-Lago resort in December. Bezos was present at Trump's inauguration, to which Amazon donated $1 million. Forbes estimates Bezos is the second-richest person in the world with a roughly $200 billion net worth, trailing only Tesla CEO Elon Musk, the self-described 'first buddy' of Trump.
Amazon will report earnings for 2025's first quarter Thursday afternoon. The company brought in $638 billion in revenue last year, trailing only Walmart as the highest company by sales in the world.
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