Donald Trump praised Jeff Bezos for quickly ditching a plan to share the cost of U.S. tariffs on Amazon after the president made a furious call to the tech billionaire to complain about the idea.
“He’s a good guy. I’ve gotten to know him over the last couple of years, and he’s done a fantastic job,” Trump said of Bezos Tuesday afternoon.
“I appreciated what he did,” the president added. “Jeff Bezos is very nice. Terrific. He solved the problem very quickly. He did the right thing.”
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The comments were the president’s first public response after Amazon hastily scrapped a possible plan to display the cost of Trump’s tariffs next to the total cost of some products on its budget prices website.
The president was asked about it by reporters as he left the White House to travel to Michigan, where he is giving a speech to mark his first 100 days of his second term.
Trump made the ‘p----- off’ phone call to the Amazon founder after learning about the plan to show how the policy cost would be passed on to consumers, a senior White House official told CNN.
Within hours of the call, the retail giant publicly downplayed the idea. A spokesperson told The Washington Post that it had only been considered for Amazon Haul, which has lower priced items.
Then a spokesperson said in a statement that it was “never approved” and “never going to happen.”
The plan to display tariff costs for consumers on Amazon was first reported early on Tuesday by Punchbowl News.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt showed up at her briefing with reporters early Tuesday ready to take Amazon to task. She held up a printed image of Bezos while she blasted the plan.
“This is a hostile and political act by Amazon,” Leavitt said. “Why didn’t Amazon do this when the Biden administration hiked inflation to the highest level in 40 years?”
It was a dramatic shift from the chummy relationship Bezos has had with the Trump administration since the president was elected to a second term.
He first showed up at Mar-a-Lago in December to meet with Trump. The tech titan also donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration in January and was among the group of billionaires who sat just feet away from Trump as he was sworn back into office inside the U.S. Capitol.
Leavitt said she would not speak to the president’s relationship with Bezos Tuesday morning, but she accused Amazon of partnering with a “Chinese propaganda arm.”
Evidently, a couple of hours later the relationship between the two men was back in prime condition.
