Democrats and left-wing influencers are relishing a rift that has emerged between President Donald Trump and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, despite the latter’s recent sucking up to MAGA.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt eviscerated Bezos’ company on Tuesday morning, claiming a reported plan to display how tariffs raised prices was a “hostile and political act.” She made it clear her comments came after speaking with Trump.
“So weird, I thought the new alliance between Trump and Bezos was built on a strong foundation of mutual trust and admiration,” wrote Jon Favreau, who was once Barack Obama’s director of speechwriting.
Leavitt went as far as to accuse Bezos of working at the behest of China, holding up a piece of paper in the White House press briefing room that featured a 2021 Reuters article with the headline, “Amazon partners with China propaganda arm.”
Bezos’ ties to China were not an issue to Team Trump before Tuesday. He sat front and center at Trump’s inauguration after donating $1 million to it, and flew to Florida to meet with Trump at Mar-a-Lago in December. Since then, CNN reports the men have met in the Oval Office occasionally when Bezos is visiting Washington.
Sen. Tina Smith, a Democrat from Minnesota, pointed out that Bezos was so ingrained in Trump’s inner circle that he was given a better seat at his inauguration than eventual Cabinet members.
He literally gave Bezos a front row seat to his inauguration… Bezos had a better seat than members of the Cabinet. https://t.co/nlAO8I8S8B pic.twitter.com/yFisxsEMfn
— Tina Smith (@SenTinaSmith) April 29, 2025
Bezos also put in legwork to help ensure Trump’s election victory. He famously blocked The Washington Post, which he owns, from endorsing Kamala Harris in October. He has since made significant changes to his paper’s opinion section, which now features fewer political takes and focuses on “personal liberties and free markets.” The changes cost the Post hundreds of thousands of paying subscribers.
“Maybe if Jeff Bezos hadn’t barred reporters from criticizing Donald Trump, he wouldn’t have to worry about putting the cost of these stupid f—ing tariffs next to his products,” wrote the influencer JoJo From Jerz, who has a million X followers.
Another viral post read, “Jeff Bezos is getting his a– kicked by the tariffs so he is going to put that charge next to the shipping price in your Amazon orders in the future. Maybe he should’ve let the Washington Post be critical of Trump?”
MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough, who co-hosts Morning Joe, also had a laugh at Bezos falling out of favor with the White House after kissing the ring post-election.
“This is what you get, this is what you get, right, for kowtowing, right?” he said while laughing. “So they’ve got Jeff Bezos—why don’t they just put a communist Chinese flag? Way to go, Jeff, that really worked. You rented a couple of weeks, and now they’re calling you a commie.”
Bezos, 61, was also criticized by figures on the left for ultimately nixing the plan to include details about how tariffs raised prices, as was first reported by Punchbowl News early Tuesday morning.
Chip Somodevilla/Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Amazon released two statements after Leavitt’s grilling. The first claimed that only Amazon’s ultra-low-cost Amazon Haul platform was considering implementing the tariff information. Amazon Haul has been described as a “Temu copycat,” offering lower prices but longer shipping wait times.
A second statement from the business, released shortly after, stated outright that the tariff pricing disclaimer “was never approved and will not occur.”
CNN reported that a peeved Trump called Bezos after learning of Punchbowl’s report. Then, just after 1 p.m., Trump adviser Stephen Miller confirmed the call to Fox News and said that “things worked out exactly as they should.”
The podcast host Jack Hopkins said of Bezos backing off the tariff disclaimers: “Imagine being that wealthy, and still being so damn weak.”
Claude Taylor, who is the chair of the Mad Dog PAC, which has paid to put up anti-Trump billboards across America, shared that sentiment and wrote: “Well, s–t. It looks like my desire to give Jeff Bezos a tiny smidgeon of credit was misplaced.”
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