Following a report yesterday about his feelings toward Amazon, President Trump fired a tweet this morning aimed at the online retail giant.
“I have stated my concerns with Amazon long before the Election,” he wrote. “Unlike others, they pay little or no taxes to state & local governments, use our Postal System as their Delivery Boy (causing tremendous loss to the U.S.), and are putting many thousands of retailers out of business!”
Yesterday, Axios reported that Trump was “obsessed” with Amazon, even as public outrage has been directed toward Facebook. He reportedly did not have any concrete plans for regulation, and after the report, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the administration did not have any policy changes to announce.
This isn’t the first time Trump has publicly criticized Amazon. Last year, he wrote on Twitter that the United States Postal Service’s deals with Amazon made “the Post Office dumber and poorer,” and that the company should be charged more. The Postal Service does make deals with large customers, including Amazon, although Trump’s contention that it has resulted in “tremendous loss” is misleading. While critics have questioned the wisdom of the deals, USPS’s problems go far beyond Amazon.
Amazon also charges taxes under agreements with states, but Trump is not alone in criticizing how the company collects taxes: cities have said they’re left out of tax money, and Amazon does not generally force third-party sellers on its platform into collecting applicable taxes.
Trump has also repeatedly tied Amazon to the Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post, an outlet that’s also a regular target of his tweets.
An Amazon spokesperson declined comment.