Trump’s fury, built on lies, dents Amazon stock
DESPITE PUBLIC outrage at Facebook over privacy and security concerns, President Trump’s prime target in the world of billionaire-owned online businesses is clearly e-commerce giant Amazon.
Trump is “obsessed” with Jeff Bezos’ online retailer and has discussed altering the company’s tax treatment and often rails that Amazon is pulling one over on the U.S. Postal Service, according to Axios.
“The whole post office thing, that’s very much a perception he has,” a source told the site. “It’s been explained to him in multiple meetings that his perception is inaccurate and that the post office actually makes a ton of money from Amazon.”
The tech-heavy Nasdaq index suffered a series of swings throughout the day on Wednesday before sliding 24 points to end the day down 0.4%. Shares of Amazon dropped 4.4% by the end of the day, losing $32 billion in value.
Trump has long harbored ill will toward the company. His dislike has been compounded by wealthy colleagues who often complain to him about Amazon affecting their businesses.
Last summer, Trump accused the company of doing “great damage to tax paying retailers,” adding that “towns, cities and states throughout the U.S. are being hurt — many jobs being lost!”
He has also suggested that Amazon doesn’t collect taxes on its sales, but it does. Some states have begun passing laws requiring online marketplaces such as Amazon to collect sales taxes on behalf of third-party sellers using the site to hawk items.
The White House said Wednesday that there are no specific plans to implement changes that could affect Amazon.
“The President has said he’s always looking to create a level playing field for all businesses and this no different and he will always look at different ways, but there aren’t any specific policies on the table,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said.
Trump’s Amazon obsession stretches back years, as evident by tweets from at least 2015 targeting the company and Bezos — who recently became the richest man in the world.
Hedge fund billionaire Leon Cooperman told CNBC in December that Trump twice asked him if he thought Amazon was a monopoly.
“I said, ‘No, Mr. President, I don’t think it is. I think they’ve out-executed people and done a very good job,’ ” Cooperman told the network.
Trump also often unloads on the The Washington Post, which is owned by Bezos, tying the publication to Amazon.
Last July, he accused the Post of possibly being a “lobbyist weapon” for the company, seeking to keep politicians “from looking into Amazon no-tax monopoly."
He called the publication a “big tax shelter” for Amazon, the stock of which he said would “crumble like a paper bag” if the company “ever had to pay fair taxes.”
While Trump remains preoccupied by Amazon, others in the administration and on Capitol Hill are more concerned with Facebook’s use of private data and the ease with which Russian trolls infested the site.
The Federal Trade Commission said Monday it is investigating Facebook over its privacy practices after a Trump-linked consulting firm harvested data on millions of the company’s users. Congressional leaders want Facebook head Mark Zuckerberg to testify.
Vice President Pence appears more concerned with Facebook and Google and “is open to the suggestion that these two companies need shaking up,” according to Axios.