The tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump are causing huge waves. It has now come to light that Amazon wanted to clearly display the impact of the tariffs on consumer prices at Amazon Haul. The US government referred to this as a hostile act. Donald Trump intervened personally and called Jeff Bezos, as recent reports show.
This was the situation: As reported by the BBC, Amazon considered specifically showing how US tariffs affect product prices on a page with affordable products, Amazon Haul. This was revealed on Tuesday through a report by Punchbowl News.
However, Amazon has since reversed its position and stated that it had halted these plans and never intended to display the impact of the tariffs on prices on Amazon’s main page.
The White House publicly reprimanded Amazon for such plans, labeling it a hostile act.
Government calls Amazon’s plan political and hostile
This was the action from the White House: When discussing the first 100 days of the Trump presidency, the press secretary said she discussed the reports about Amazon’s plan to show the impact of tariffs on prices with Donald Trump.
It was a “hostile and political action by Amazon”.
The press secretary asked why Amazon hadn’t done this when inflation hit its highest level in 40 years under President Biden.
The US Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, condemned Amazon’s plan and said it was nonsense. A 10% tariff would have virtually no impact on prices. Amazon wanted to make it seem as if tariffs were responsible for price changes.
Amazon claims that the decision not to portray the impact of tariffs on prices had nothing to do with the comments from the White House.
An angry Trump reportedly resolved the issue with Bezos personally
What reportedly happened next? According to a report from CNN, Trump called Amazon founder Jeff Bezos directly to complain that Amazon intended to display the impact of US tariffs on some prices. This was confirmed to CNN by two senior officials.
This call “resolved the issues.”
Trump is quoted as saying:
Jeff Bezos was very nice. He was great. He resolved the issue very quickly. He did the right thing. He is a good man.
According to anonymous reports, Trump was “pissed off” when he was informed about Amazon’s plan.
Although Bezos officially stepped down as CEO of Amazon in 2021, he still seems able to resolve such issues through quick channels. The US tariffs have had significant impacts on global economies and also on the personal fortunes of tech billionaires: Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg have lost billions, now they earned a fortune in just a few hours
