Jeff Bezos, the third richest American, has apparently made an enemy of the new U.S. president. The Amazon founder is about to face his biggest challenge yet, and that’s Donald Trump.
Amazon, one of the biggest companies in the world, is currently valued at more than $375 billion. The conflict between Bezos and Trump started even before Trump got elected as the president.
Trump is blaming Bezos for using The Washington Post to keep taxes down. According to Trump, “The Washington Post, which loses a fortune, is owned by Jeff Bezos for purposes of keeping taxes down at his for-profit company, Amazon,” Trump wrote.
He continued, “If Amazon ever had to pay fair taxes, its stock would crash and it would crumble like a paper bag. The Washington Post scam is saving it!”
Jeff Bezos’s Amazon controversial tax policy is well-known around the world. As it turns out, Bezos agreed on favorable tax arrangements with Luxembourg. But he still didn’t take Trump’s comments lightly. Bezos used Twitter to respond on his own way, “Finally trashed by Donald Trump,” he said. “Will still reserve him a seat on the Blue Origin rocket #sendDonaldtospace.”
And Bezos of course hit back saying that comments like these “aren’t appropriate” for a president.
But Trump wasn’t the president yet, and Jeff Bezos quickly changed his tone when the election result was confirmed.
“Congratulations to Donald Trump”
Bezos wrote on Twitter: “Congratulations to Donald Trump.”
“I for one give him my most open mind and wish him great success in his service to the country.”
Just five days after Trump’s election, stock shares in Amazon dropped by almost 10%. We’re not sure how the new President is planning to approach Amazon. He certainly could start with a close examination of Bezos’s ownership of The Washington Post. Trump has made it clear he doesn’t like the way Bezo’s uses the paper.
Trump said, “I have respect for Jeff Bezos, but he uses The Washington Post to have political influence and I got to tell you, we have a different country than we used to have. He owns Amazon, he wants political influence so that Amazon will benefit from it. That’s not right. And believe me, if I become president, oh do they have problems, they are going to have such problems.” – Source.
We’re not sure how this story will end, but we sure like where it’s going. We finally have a president with the courage to confront billionaire manipulation!
