White House Accuses Amazon of 'Hostile and Political Action' Over Rumored Tariff Disclaimer

There's nothing "hostile and political" about informing the public of the negative consequences of poor economic policy.

President Donald Trump called Amazon founder and executive chairman Jeff Bezos on Tuesday morning following reports that the company would display tariff charges beside retail prices on its e-commerce website. While Amazon denied these reports, press secretary Karoline Leavitt accused the company of "hostile and political action" and partnering with "a Chinese propaganda arm" later that day.

Trump's tariffs have already begun harming American manufacturers, consumers, and workers. This reality is not lost on the president, who has admitted that his tariffs may cause short-term pain and that "people understand that." The president has denied there is a "Trump put"—a point at which the president will reverse course on his tariff policy to rescue markets—in an interview with The Atlantic's Michael Scherer and Ashley Parker. When Scherer asked the president if he would change his tariff policy "if we're headed to de-dollarization and bond interest rates are rising," Trump replied, "I don't see how I could possibly change."

If the president can acknowledge the costs of his protectionist policies and that nothing will cause him to reverse course, it's unclear how it's unpatriotic for Amazon to inform customers about the impact of tariffs on the price of consumer goods. Even if they wanted to label tariff markups, Amazon would be unable to because retailers "don't know what tariffs were charged farther back in the chain," explains Alan Cole, senior economist at the Tax Foundation.

Alice Vaughn, owner and operator of MilkToast Brands, which sells its merchandise on Amazon, confirms Cole's statement: "They don't even know our inventory costs, so they can't possibly guess what tariffs we pay."*

Vaughn explains that the tariff line item was not even considered for Amazon proper, but for Amazon Haul, which offers lower-priced products at longer (1–2 week) wait times. An Amazon spokesperson confirmed this "was never a consideration for the main Amazon site" and told CNN that "this was never approved and not going to happen."

There's nothing "hostile and political" about informing the public of the negative consequences of poor economic policy. Were Amazon actually to go through with such a plan, they would be doing America a public service, not serving "a Chinese propaganda arm."

*CORRECTION: This article originally misstated Vaughn's company's name.