Former U.S. President Donald Trump apparently called Amazon Executive Chairman Jeff Bezos to complain personally that Amazon was devoting a newly announced news report that it is planning to warn shoppers about the effect of U.S. tariffs on product prices. It occurred after Punchbowl News reported that Amazon wanted to point customers to how much they were paying more because of tariffs, especially the ones imposed by the Trump administration.
The report soon became mired in political controversy because it would have hit directly at one of his favourite claims that tariffs on Chinese goods don’t make consumers pay. Economists warn that the opposite of that is true: tariff costs are passed on to American consumers, not created by foreign exporters. Some in Trump’s circle saw that suggestion, if true, as a political jab aimed at Amazon, breaking down product pricing to show how tariff increases could affect consumers.
The Trump campaign immediately responded sharply to the report, slamming Amazon as a ‘hostile and political actor’ in bed with adversaries of American interests. Instead, the campaign encouraged people to support American made products and went as far as accusing Amazon of being unpatriotic and biased by allegedly doing so.
Amazon, however, denied quickly. Company spokesperson, said they had no such plans on their main retail platform to show how tariffs impact prices. Billions in subsidies for both countries may soon be written off, courtesy of the idea – floated internally among Amazon insiders as a potential strategy for the corporation’s discount-focused platform, Amazon Haul. But it was never final or approved for adoption and was then dropped.
The call from Trump to Bezos clarified that despite this, the former president’s circle had become concerned with the narrative concerning its tariffs. The arrangement also brought attention to Trump’s already tense relationship with Bezos, which already includes several years of political differences and Trump taking aim at The Washington Post, owned by Bezos.
This is but one example that highlights the wider issue of how the mass corporations of the world are trying to balance their business approach with their political messaging. Amazon likely found that transparency in pricing was a ‘customer happy’ move, but political considerations associated with assigning cost increases to government policy, in particular an unpopular one were very touchy.The underlining is ultimately just how politically charged issues are when it comes to trade policy and consumer pricing, and still are in a polarized environment, where corporate actions can be quite quickly interpreted as political statements. The end is still nigh for Amazon — it’s also a reminder to the company of just how much it is on the political parties’ radar, and how tightly it must walk the line between neutrality and market constraint.
