Trump escalates attack on Amazon, slams it on taxes, shipping

“He’s wondered aloud if there may be any way to go after Amazon with anti-trust or competition law”, Axios said quoting an unnamed source.

As the Times notes, both Amazon and Bezos are “regular Twitter targets” of the president. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post, but the news organization is a separate entity from Amazon.

But, just a few hours later, the stock has recovered and is up about 1 percent today.

Legally pursuing Amazon could affect more than its share price, which was largely steady after Mr Trump’s tweet. Analysts have said that Amazon’s own delivery service poses more of a threat to the USPS than it does to private delivery companies FedEx and UPS.

With this, the Amazon shares fell about 4.4 percent on Wednesday. Additionally, the company works with about 15 outside lobbying firms who each assign more lobbyists to work on behalf of the company. And Trump’s overall lack of interest in the hard and boring work of bureaucratic reform means that Amazon and its shareholders should shrug off the president’s scorn.

President Trump’s “threats have a history of limited or no follow through”, writes Birinyi, falthough it’s always possible “it will be different this time“.

It’s true that a growing number of retail chains have closed stores, scaled back operations or filed for bankruptcy reorganization in recent years, partly due to their inability to keep pace with consumers’ shift toward more Internet shopping. These banking products should appeal to youngsters who have no credit cards and would make it easier for them to shop online at Amazon.com than the current Amazon Cash pseudo-card solution, which involves making deposits at drug stores or 7-Elevens.

But a careful reading of the tweet says that Amazon isn’t hurting the Post Office, but merely taking advantage of the vast public subsidies provided by the American people to the Post Office.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters Wednesday there were “no announcements and no specific policies or actions that we’re now pushing forward” regarding Amazon.

White House shoots down that Trump’s criticism was part of a grudge.

In one tweet last summer, he asked “Is Fake News Washington Post being used as a lobbyist weapon?”

In the decade following 2007, e-commerce added 355,000 jobs while general retail lost 51,000, resulting in a net gain of more than 300,000. “While Amazon takes advantage of tax breaks and loopholes, it pays federal corporate tax and charges sales taxes in 46 US jurisdictions”.

To his credit, Trump has voiced his “concerns” with Amazon for years, as he said on Thursday. Amazon does not have to collect taxes on third-party or marketplace sellers.

Does Amazon avoid state and local taxes?

The issue might be resolved elsewhere in the federal government. Amazon regularly uses the US Postal Service (USPS) to complete what’s called the “last mile” of delivery, with letter carriers dropping off packages at some 150-million residences and businesses daily. “Should be charging MUCH MORE!” he tweeted.