Trump Admin Freaks Out Over Report Amazon Planned To Be Transparent About Tariffs
Okay, there’s a lot to unpack in this story, so hang with me here. For the past month or so, Americans and American businesses have been stuck in tariff hell. Blanket and additional tariffs issued via executive order by Trump have been in a seesaw pattern for a month now. This tariff program was a key campaign promise Trump had on offer and, since becoming President, has been something over which Trump has had an immense amount of pride. Tariffs are good, you see. A boon to the country. A major achievement of this administration. That they haven’t settled on when or how much will go into effect, nor for how long, is of no importance. Neither is the hilariously faulty math and premise that the constructed tariff rates were built upon. Tariffs are great and that’s all you need to know.
Earlier this week, Punchbowl News reported that Amazon planned to include line items on its online store across the board to denote to purchasers just how much of the cost of a product came from Trump’s tariffs. Now, it appears that this report was mostly wrong and that Amazon instead was discussing putting that in place only on its Amazon Haul store, which is a sub-store focused on imported goods from China to compete with the likes of Temu and Shein. And Amazon has since said it has scrapped the plan entirely as well (more on that in a second).
But the point is this: Trump freaked out about a massive online retailer showing American buyers the impact on pricing of the tariffs that Trump is totally proud of and that will bring America into its new golden age. Tariffs are good, you see, but the public knowing what they do is not.
Amazon issued such a specific and forceful on-the-record denial in part because it had drawn the ire of the Trump administration. In a press briefing early this morning, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked a question about the report, which the administration responded to as though Amazon had made a formal announcement about the policy.
“This is a hostile and political act by Amazon,” Leavitt said, before blaming the Biden administration for high inflation and claiming that Amazon had “partnered with a Chinese propaganda arm.”
The Washington Post also reported that Trump had called Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to complain about the report.
There is simply no way to square this circle other than to say that Trump knows it will piss off Americans if they see how much cost he is adding to them, rather than to foreign companies and countries as he’s claimed this will all work. So he wants to hide the thing he says is awesome and is proud of from the American people. And he’s willing to put his thumb on commercial interests to do so.
Why? Why is it a bad thing for retailers and manufacturers to inform the public of where the costs of their goods are coming from? If tariffs are so great, why does the public need to be shielded from understanding what they do? These sellers are going to be accused of price-gauging, particularly from anyone who believes Trump’s nonsense claim that anyone but Americans will be paying these tariffs. Why should they endure those accusations in favor of Trump’s game of hide-and-seek?
And why do these tech companies keep bending the knee to this President? They’ve been engaging in this placating routine since the inauguration, when many heads of companies showed up to prove that they could, in fact, manage to stand as Hail to the Chief plays while not having a spine.
CNBC’s Squawk Box, featuring Trump cheerleader Joe Kernan, made the point beautifully in reaction to all of this when Kernan essentially asked why government enforcement efforts against Amazon, such as antitrust litigation, haven’t evaporated now that the company has added boot-licking to its portfolio of services. CNBC makes the clip pretty much impossible to embed here, but at the tail end of it you have Kernan essentially asking aloud why Amazon is bowing to Trump when all this government action is hanging over its head still, with the Wired reporter responding that he doesn’t know, but that Trump keeps that stuff hanging to use as leverage.
Despots are never satisfied or appeased, as is often said.
So, let’s summarize. The Trump administration freaked out over a mostly-wrong report that Amazon was going to be transparent about pricing effects from tariffs, that Trump is very proud of, on its website, so it pressured the company to nix those plans both in the press and via personal phone calls from the President, only to have Amazon once more bend the knee to Trump despite seemingly getting nothing out of it in return.
Totally normal stuff happening around America these days.