President Donald Trump said he talked to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos on Tuesday shortly after a report claimed that the e-commerce giant was going to show the cost of tariffs next to the total price of products on its site.
Trump said that Bezos “solved the problem very quickly” after Punchbowl News reported that Amazon was planning to display tariff costs. Shortly after the Punchbowl News report was published, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt blasted Amazon, calling its reported move “hostile and political.” Amazon responded to the report Tuesday morning, denying that it was planning to show tariff costs on its main website.
“Jeff Bezos was very nice. He was terrific. He solved the problem very quickly, and he did the right thing,” Trump told reporters before boarding Marine One Tuesday afternoon. “He’s a good guy.”
.@POTUS on Amazon: “Jeff Bezos was very nice. He was terrific. He solved the problem very quickly and he did the right thing.” pic.twitter.com/AGrFLA9u1X
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) April 29, 2025
Bezos has grown warmer toward Trump after the 2024 presidential election, attending his inauguration and meeting him at Mar-a-Lago. Leavitt didn’t pull any punches in her comments about Amazon, however, and said that its reported decision was “not a surprise,” pointing to a 2021 Reuters report about the tech and e-commerce giant partnering with a Chinese propaganda arm and complying with some of communist China’s wishes for the website. A senior White House official told CNN that Trump “was pissed” after learning of Amazon’s reported plan to add a tariff charge.
After Leavitt blasted Amazon, a spokesman for the company said that the plan was only discussed for the “ultra low cost Amazon Haul store,” which “considered the idea of listing import charges on certain products,” ABC News reported. The spokesman added, “Teams discuss ideas all the time. This was never a consideration for the main Amazon site and nothing has been implemented on any Amazon properties.”
Amazon, an American company that sources over 70% of its products from China, is facing the brunt of Trump’s 145% tariff on China. Chinese clothing stores Temu and Shein have added tariff surcharges, showing an additional 145% “import charge” for each item that they sell, CNBC reported.
