Now it’s parcel-onal
Trump rips Amazon & Bezos ‘lobby’
President Trump intensified his attacks on Amazon’s Jeff Bezos Saturday, slamming not only the ecommerce giant but also the Bezos-owned Washington Post by calling it a lobbying outfit.
Trump had been uncharacteristically quiet on social media, but he ended his Good Friday Twitter fast with two morning tweets that picked up where he left off on Thursday.
“While we are on the subject,” he posted at 8:45 a.m., “it is reported that the US Post Office will lose $1.50 on average for each package it delivers for Amazon. That amounts to Billions of Dollars.”
“The Failing N.Y. Times reports that ‘the size of the company’s lobbying staff has ballooned,’ and that does not include the Fake Washington Post, which is used as a ‘lobbyist’ and should so REGIS- TER,” he continued.
The DC newspaper has drawn Trump’s ire multiple times, and he has repeatedly labeled it “fake news” for its reporting on his campaign and presidency.
“If the P.O. ‘increased its parcel rates, Amazon’s shipping costs would rise by $2.6 Billion,’ ” Trump wrote. “This Post Office scam must stop. Amazon must pay real costs (and taxes) now!”
Trump based his shipping-cost complaint on a 2017 Citigroup analysis that concluded the US Postal Service undercharges e- commerce retailers like Amazon and others on the millions of packages they handle.
That’s because the USPS formula for calculating parcel costs has not changed since 2006, when they made up only about 5 percent of all deliveries. But the quantity has quintupled due to the e-commerce revolution.
The difference adds up to an effective “discount” of about $1.46 per package, Citigroup found.
The Postal Service has operated at a loss for the last 11 years and receives taxpayer subsidies — but federal regulators say package pricing is not to blame. Officials review Amazon’s contract each year and have determined it to be profitable.
The president, who tweeted from his motorcade as he traveled to the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, is spending the holiday weekend at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.