You Can Add Amazon To The List Of Trump-administration Enemies

Photo: Jens Büttner/Picture Alliance/Getty Images

Over the past year, Jeff Bezos and Donald Trump have formed an alliance. The Amazon founder and former Trump skeptic — whose space-exploration company has pressing business with the federal government — received prime seating at the president’s second inauguration and exerted his power as owner of the Washington Post to prevent the publication of an endorsement of Trump’s Democratic opponent, then-Vice-President Kamala Harris. He also steered the Post’s op-ed section in a more conservative direction.

But the two billionaires’ cozy relationship is already showing strain. On Tuesday, Punchbowl News reported that Amazon plans to display how much of a given item’s cost stems from tariffs, a stark counter to the government’s consistent argument that its tariff policies are not passing costs onto consumers. Experts predict that Amazon will bear a large portion of the government’s extensive tariffs on China, with many sellers reportedly raising prices already on goods imported from the country.

In a morning briefing, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt swiftly denounced Amazon’s plans. “This is a hostile and political act by Amazon,” she said. “Why didn’t Amazon do this when the Biden administration hiked inflation to the highest level in 40 years?”

According to the Trump administration, Amazon is now a hostile political actor aligned with a Chinese propaganda firm. Wow. This turned down quickly. I guess we’re not supposed to know who is really paying the tariffs. pic.twitter.com/NsMqg8pMzy

— Mike Alfred (@mikealfred) April 29, 2025

Leavitt continued, “This is another reason why Americans should buy American. It’s another reason why we’re onshoring critical supply chains here at home to shore up our own critical supply chain and boost our own manufacturing here.”

Shortly after her comments, Amazon said it had never planned to display the tariff number on its central site, but that its discount-oriented site, which borrows heavily from the Chinese juggernaut Temu, might do so.

New — Amazon Spox now saying this was never under consideration for the main Amazon website. Says Amazon Haul has considered listing import price duties on certain products https://t.co/Uc4WpWRL3s

— Jeff Stein (@JStein_WaPo) April 29, 2025

The company went even further in a subsequent statement, rejecting the idea entirely. “The team that runs our ultra low cost Amazon Haul store considered the idea of listing import charges on certain products. This was never approved and not going to happen,” a spokesman told CBS News. But the damage might’ve already been done. Amazon’s stock prices began to drop not long after Leavitt’s public rebuke of the company.

Amazon’s quick walk-back of its plans was likely the result of some federal pressure. CNN reports that Trump personally called Bezos to complain about the Amazon report, according to White House officials. The statements from the company’s spokesman were released following the call.

At the briefing, Leavitt was pressed by a reporter on whether Bezos could still be considered a Trump supporter. She declined to go into detail. “I will not speak to the president’s relationships with Jeff Bezos, but I will tell you that this is certainly a hostile and political action by Amazon.”

For Trump’s part, the president recently praised Bezos in an interview with The Atlantic published on Monday. “He’s 100 percent. He’s been great,” he said.