The President of the United States is attacking Amazon again.
Donald Trump this evening issued a series of Tweets, calling out the “Amazon Washington Post.” The Tweets appeared to be in reaction to a story the newspaper ran titled “Cooperation with Russia becomes central to Trump strategy in Syria.”
Update: Politico Media reports that Tucker Carlson of Fox News talked Monday night about a July 19 Washington Post story, which appears to be what prompted Trump’s tweets.
Amazon does not own The Washington Post. Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos purchased the newspaper in 2013 for $250 million.
Here is the series of Tweets that President Trump issued.
The Amazon Washington Post fabricated the facts on my ending massive, dangerous, and wasteful payments to Syrian rebels fighting Assad…..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 25, 2017
So many stories about me in the @washingtonpost are Fake News. They are as bad as ratings challenged @CNN. Lobbyist for Amazon and taxes?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 25, 2017
Is Fake News Washington Post being used as a lobbyist weapon against Congress to keep Politicians from looking into Amazon no-tax monopoly?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 25, 2017
It’s unclear what Trump meant by the “Amazon no-tax monopoly,” but the president has gone down this path before Tweeting this in June:
The #AmazonWashingtonPost, sometimes referred to as the guardian of Amazon not paying internet taxes (which they should) is FAKE NEWS!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 28, 2017
Amazon collects sales tax on purchases in every state where it’s required, and the company supports national legislation that would require remote sellers to collect sales tax regardless of location.
It’s not the first time that Trump has lambasted Amazon and Bezos. Here’s what Trump told Fox News on the campaign trail last year:
I will tell you, this is owned as a toy by Jeff Bezos, who controls Amazon. Amazon is getting away with murder tax-wise. He’s using the Washington Post for power so that the politicians in Washington don’t tax Amazon like they should be taxed. … He’s worried about me — I think he said that to somebody, it was in some article — where he thinks I would go after him for antitrust, because he’s got a huge antitrust problem, because he’s controlling so much. Amazon is controlling so much of what they’re doing.
He bought this paper for practically nothing, and he’s using that as a tool for political power, against me and against other people, and I’ll tell you what, we can’t let him get away with it.