There’s a fresh spat brewing between the White House and Amazon.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Tuesday accused the online retail giant of being “hostile and political”, citing a report — disputed by Amazon — from Punchbowl News saying that the company would start displaying the exact cost of tariff-related price increases alongside its products.
Displaying the import fees would have made clear to American consumers that they are shouldering the cost of President Donald Trump’s tariff policies rather than China, as he and his top officials have often claimed would be the case.
An Amazon spokesperson said the company had considered a similar idea on part of its site, Amazon Haul, which competes with Temu, a Chinese retailer. Temu primarily ships directly to consumers and has begun displaying “import charges” to reflect the end of a customs loophole that had exempted low-priced items from tariffs.
“Teams discuss ideas all the time,” the spokesperson, Ty Rogers, said in a statement. He said it was never under consideration for the main Amazon site, adding, “This was never approved and is not going to happen.”
Standing beside Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent during a briefing at the White House on Tuesday morning, Leavitt tore into the retailer. She said that she had just been on the phone with the President about the report, and she asked why Amazon hadn’t done such a thing when prices increased during the Biden administration because of inflation.
Leavitt said it was “not a surprise” coming from Amazon, as she held up a copy of a 2021 article from Reuters with the headline, “Amazon partnered with China propaganda arm”.
Leavitt’s attack on Amazon was all the more noteworthy because the company’s founder, Jeff Bezos, has lately gone to great lengths to curry favour with this White House. Amazon donated $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund, securing seats for Bezos and his bride-to-be in the Capitol Rotunda for the inauguration.
In December, Bezos explained his Trump-ward turn. “What I’ve seen so far is he is calmer than he was the first time,” Bezos said of Trump, “more confident, more settled.”