Over the past few days, President Trump has taken to Twitter to highlight a problem he sees with online retail giant, Amazon. Simply put, they don’t pay the taxes they should owe to the US Postal Service (USPS).
Amazon has caused massive economic turmoil among traditional, ‘brick and mortar’ retailers, who have not had to rely on an online presence to sell their products. Additionally, package delivery – which is done without a stamp – has costed the USPS billions in lost revenue, while lining the pockets of Amazon’s investors.
Trump highlighted these exact facts in a tweet over the weekend, “If the P.O. ‘increased its parcel rates, Amazon’s shipping costs would rise by $2.6 Billion,’” tweeted Trump. “This Post Office scam must stop. Amazon must pay real costs (and taxes) now!”
“I have stated my concerns with Amazon long before the Election. 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!”
As a result of the negative attention from Trump’s powerful Twitter account, Amazon’s market value plunged by $24 million, before stabilizing later in the day. As they have grown as a company, Amazon has also invested more in lobbying the federal government, with that operation growing to rival that of other big tech companies like Microsoft, Facebook and Google.
Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon, also owns the liberal rag newspaper The Washington Post. The Post won a prestigious Pulitzer Prize last year for uncovering the scope of Donald Trump’s philanthropic giving. Naturally, for a person who has promised to “always punch back harder,” Jeff Bezos’ Amazon and Washington Post are natural targets.