White House calls Amazon ‘hostile’ for reported tariff displays

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt joined by U.S. Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent, holds a news article on Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos that reads "Amazon partnered with China propaganda arm." Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images/Postmedia files

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“This is a hostile and political act by Amazon,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Tuesday. “Why didn’t Amazon do this when the Biden administration hiked inflation to the highest level in 40 years?”

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The comments from Leavitt came after Punchbowl News reported that the e-commerce giant would “soon” begin displaying the cost of United States tariffs on individual products next to the total listed price. The report included few other details about the plan. Amazon representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

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Companies like Amazon and fast-fashion giant Shein Group Ltd. are bracing for a 120 per cent tariff on many of their products due to the U.S. government’s decision to end the “de minimis” exemption for small packages from mainland China and Hong Kong.

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Exporters in recent years had capitalized on the exemption, which allowed goods valued at under US$800 to enter the U.S. without tariffs or customs duties.

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Leavitt said she had spoken to Trump about the report, and went on to criticize Amazon’s compliance with censorship demands by the Chinese government.

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Leavitt declined to answer when asked if the move had strained the relationship between the president and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who has sought to curry favour with Trump in recent months. Bezos and Trump frequently clashed during the president’s first term over the billionaire’s ownership of the Washington Post.

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“I will not speak to the president’s relationships with Jeff Bezos,” Leavitt said.

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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who attended the press briefing, said any move to highlight tariffs was unfair when the costs of policies implemented by other administrations — including regulations — weren’t broken out.

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“The big tax on consumers that goes unnoticed is deregulation or regulation, and we are deregulating and bringing that down,” Bessent said. “So you know, from a household income point of view, we would expect real purchasing increases that we’ve seen over the first 100 days, and we would expect that to accelerate.”

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A CNN poll released this week showed 59 per cent of the public believe Trump’s policies have made the economy worse, with six in 10 believing his efforts have increased their cost of living. Nearly seven in 10 of survey respondents say they believe an economic recession is somewhat likely in the next year.

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—With assistance from Stephanie Lai.

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