President Donald Trump took to Twitter early this morning to blast Amazon for causing damage to “tax paying retailers.” In his tweet, Trump claimed Amazon was causing harm to cities, states, and towns across the U.S. Trump’s Twitter blast claimed Amazon was causing many jobs to be lost.
As the T Washington Post reminds us, this isn’t the first time Trump has attacked CEO Jeff Bezos and Amazon. As Jeff Bezos is also the owner of the Washington Post , some have speculated whether or not the blast on Amazon was also an indirect blast on the media outlet as well. Was Donald Trump attacking Amazon or was he attacking Bezos?
Just this month Amazon announced the need to hire an additional 100,000 employees. So, media outlets are a little baffled as to how the company is “causing many jobs to be lost” when it is actually adding additional jobs to the market. Is Trump just trying to stir the pot?
USA Today notes the irony of the fact that Trump’s tweet blasting Amazon was posted a mere hours after the TWashington Post published an editorial titled “Mr. Trump gives comfort to racists.” Was the shade thrown as a response to the editorial? This is what some media outlets believe.
It goes without saying that many brick-and-mortar businesses are having a hard time thriving in an industry where customers prefer to shop online. Companies such as Amazon and Walmart.com are making it hard for the brick-and-mortar businesses to survive. USA Today notes that a number of retailers including True Religion, The Limited, and Payless ShoeSource all declared bankruptcy just this year. Many other businesses have opted to close down some of their stores across the U.S. in an attempt to stay in business as they compete against Amazon and other online retailers.
The Washington Post hasn’t exactly been shy when it comes to aggressive coverage of President Donald Trump. Furthermore, Trump has been very upfront with his thoughts on The Washington Post being a “fake news” outlet. So, the blast at Amazon actually being a jab at the media outlet is a plausible theory .
This isn’t even the first jab Donald has taken at Amazon and the Washington Post at the same time. In June, Trump used the hashtag #AmazonWashingtonPost to slam the media outlet for allowing Amazon to evade “internet taxes.” For the most part, people were fairly confused as to what Trump was talking about as Amazon customers do pay state taxes depending on where they are buying products from and having them shipped to.
Amazon is doing great damage to tax paying retailers. Towns, cities and states throughout the U.S. are being hurt – many jobs being lost!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 16, 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
The @washingtonpost , which is the lobbyist (power) for not imposing taxes on #Amazon , today did a nasty cartoon attacking @tedcruz kids. Bad
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 23, 2015
Do you believe Donald Trump’s blast at Amazon was also a jab at the Washington Post ? Do you believe Amazon is hurting brick-and-mortar businesses and killing jobs? Sound off in the comments down below.
[Featured Image by Tom Pennington & David Ryder/Getty Images]
