White
House Attacks Amazon Over Idea of Showing Tariffs’ Cost
The White
House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, attacked the retail giant over a
report that suggested Amazon would highlight tariff-related price increases.
Amazon said it was “not going to happen.”
Shawn
McCreeshKaren Weise
By Shawn
McCreesh and Karen Weise
Shawn
McCreesh reported from Washington, and Karen Weise from Seattle.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/29/us/politics/trump-amazon-tariffs-prices.html
April 29,
2025
Updated 1:31
p.m. ET
There’s a
fresh spat brewing between the White House and Amazon.
Karoline
Leavitt, the White House press secretary, on Tuesday accused the online retail
giant of being “hostile and political,” citing a report — disputed by Amazon —
from Punchbowl News saying that the company would start displaying the exact
cost of tariff-related price increases alongside its products.
Displaying
the import fees would have made clear to American consumers that they are
shouldering the cost of President Trump’s tariff policies rather than China, as
he and his top officials have often claimed would be the case.
After the
report was published, Mr. Trump spoke about it over the phone with Jeff Bezos,
Amazon’s founder, according to three people familiar with the exchange.
An Amazon
spokesman said the company had considered a similar idea, but only on part of
its site, Amazon Haul, which competes with Temu, a Chinese retailer. Temu
primarily ships directly to consumers and has begun displaying “import charges”
to reflect the end of a customs loophole that had exempted low-priced items
from tariffs.
“Teams
discuss ideas all the time,” the spokesman, Ty Rogers, said in a statement. He
said it was never under consideration for the main Amazon site, adding: “This
was never approved and is not going to happen.”
Ms. Leavitt
had ripped into the retailer during a press briefing Tuesday morning while
standing beside Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. She said that she had just
been talking on the phone with the president about the report. She also asked
aloud in her briefing why Amazon hadn’t done such a thing when prices increased
during the Biden administration because of inflation.
Ms. Leavitt
said it was “not a surprise” coming from Amazon, as she held up a copy of a
2021 article from Reuters with the headline, “Amazon partnered with China
propaganda arm.”
Mr. Trump’s
aggressive tariffs on Chinese goods have touched off an escalating trade war,
even as his administration has backed off its broader global levies amid what
it said were negotiations with dozens of nations on new trade deals.
Ms.
Leavitt’s attack on Amazon was all the more noteworthy because Mr. Bezos has
lately gone to great lengths to curry favor with this White House. Amazon
donated $1 million to Mr. Trump’s inaugural fund, securing seats for Mr. Bezos
and his bride-to-be in the Capitol Rotunda for the inauguration.
Shortly
before the election, Mr. Bezos quashed an editorial endorsing Kamala Harris for
president in the newspaper that he owns, the Washington Post. More recently,
Amazon Prime added multiple seasons of “The Apprentice” to its streaming
inventory. The company also cut a deal with the Trump family to make a
documentary about Melania Trump.
In December,
Mr. Bezos explained his Trump-ward turn while speaking at The New York Times
DealBook conference. “What I’ve seen so far is he is calmer than he was the
first time,” Mr. Bezos said of Mr. Trump, “more confident, more settled.”
He added,
“I’m very hopeful. He seems to have a lot of energy around reducing
regulation.”
Mr. Trump
was asked about his relationship with Mr. Bezos in a cover story in The
Atlantic magazine published Monday. “He’s 100 percent,” Mr. Trump said. “He’s
been great.”
But when Ms.
Leavitt was asked Tuesday morning whether the Amazon mogul can still be
considered a Trump supporter, given the latest report, she demurred.
“Look, I
will not speak to the president’s relationships with Jeff Bezos,” Ms. Leavitt
said, “but I will tell you that this is certainly a hostile and political
action by Amazon.”
Shawn
McCreesh is a White House reporter for The Times covering the Trump
administration.
Karen Weise
writes about technology for The Times and is based in Seattle. Her coverage
focuses on Amazon and Microsoft, two of the most powerful companies in America.
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