The honeymoon that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos attempted with President Trump hit a snag on Tuesday after reports that the company planned to show shoppers how much tariffs will add to the price of products.
"I just got off the phone with the president about this, about Amazon’s announcement. This is a hostile and political act by Amazon,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at a press briefing following the report by Punchbowl News.
An Amazon spokesman responded soon after, saying the plan had been discussed at Amazon Haul, its lower-cost store that competes with online retailers like Shein and Temu.
“Teams discuss ideas all the time,” Ty Rogers, an Amazon spokesman, said in a statement reported by The New York Times. “This was never a consideration for the main Amazon site and nothing has been implemented on any Amazon properties.”
An hour later, Amazon said the plan was “never approved” and is “not going to happen," media outlets reported.
Trump and Bezos spoke over the phone after the Punchbowl report was published, The Times and NBC News reported.
Temu, based in China, raised prices in recent days after Trump hiked tariffs and closed a loophole that allowed duty-free shipments to the U.S. Temu also started listing the "import charges" above the total price of its items. Some of the fees range between 130% and 150%, more than doubling the cost of the items, CNBC reported. Shein, founded in China and based in Singapore, also increased prices in response to tariffs.
After clashing with Trump in his first term, Bezos and other tech billionaires have been trying to work their way back into his good graces, visiting Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort after his reelection, donating to his inauguration fund and scoring prime seats at his swearing-in.
Amazon reportedly spent $40 million to secure the rights to produce and stream a documentary about Melania Trump, outbidding both Disney and Paramount.
Bezos, who owns The Washington Post, was behind the decision to shut down the newspaper's endorsement of Kamala Harris in the 2024 election.
Asked to comment on the status of where things stand now between Bezos and Trump, Leavitt told the media: “I will not speak to the president’s relationships with Jeff Bezos."
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