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, founder and owner of Offensive Crayons, 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."

Comments

[sarcasmic]

Trump has people believing that tariffs are paid by foreigners, not us. So of course he and his defenders are threatened by the idea of showing import taxes in the price of goods. That would contradict their lie. Can't have that.

[Zeb]

In any case, being "hostile and political" is protected speech and perfectly legal and normal. This is no better than pressuring companies to censor "misinformation".

[Dillinger]

this was yesterday morning and lasted four minutes did you require today's USA TODAY for the cite?

[sarcasmic]

this was yesterday morning and lasted four minutes

hehehehehe

[Dillinger]

yes seventeen jokes came to mind as I typed

[DesigNate]

I can see the argument that it’s hostile and political, you know since nobody talked about doing the same thing whenever previous presidents fucked around with tariffs. But I agree with Zeb, that it doesn’t really matter if it is or not because it’s definitely protected speech.

Personally, I say throw a breakdown of every tax and regulatory cost, not just the proposed tariffs, on stuff so people can see just how insane the burden is.

[sarcasmic]

No other president has "fucked around with tariffs" to the extent that Trump is doing. Last time we had had comparable tariffs it was Congress, not the president, who did it. Specifically Smoot-Hawley. And the results were disastrous. That's why people are talking about it. You know, because every single time in recorded history when a government has imposed tariffs like Trump is doing right now, the economy went to shit. People aren't talking about it simply because Trump, as his lying defenders claim.

[Don't look at me! (Why is penguin meat so expensive now?)]

..was Congress, not the president, who did it.

Congress did it first, so it’s ok!

[Sometimes a Great Notion]

It isn't actually new though, maybe for Amazon. I have vendors that put a tariff line on invoices prior. Hell during Biden had one with a temp inflation surcharge line added.

[DesigNate]

It would be new for Amazon and other retailers. But yes, vendors have been breaking out these things for a while now.

[JesseAz (Prime Meanster of Sarcasia)]

2nd article built around a generated media story Amazon itself said was fake.

Interesting choice.

But more than Trump, customers have been asking Amazon to put origin of manufacturer on their website for years. If Amazon did take an action like this without ability to filter country origin, they'd likely have more consumers drop them than the policy would help.

[Dakotian (descendent of Kulaks)]

Yeah, this might not work out how people think. A lot of customers would just look for non-tariff options because they don't want to buy from China if they have a choice.

[JFree]

This is just one more example of Trump's basic dishonesty and narcissism. And his willingness to screw his blue collar base.

It's obvious his intention here is to hide and disguise 'tariff policy' as inflation rather than taxes. He can blame inflation on Biden but if tariffs are seen as taxes then that is clearly on Trump.

This will become even more cynical in July or so when he throws the blue collar crowd under the bus. The agenda then will be to extend the 2017 tax cuts. Esp tax cuts for the billionaire donor class. If he were to admit that tariffs were taxes, then he would have to admit that he already raised taxes on Joe Grunt in order to fund tax cuts for the Reason donors and MaggotMises crowd. Not the perception he wants to sell.

Hopefully, that July or so tax cut discussion produces a financial crisis where foreigners finally vomit dollars and stop funding these games

[Don't look at me! (Why is penguin meat so expensive now?)]

Hopefully, that July or so tax cut discussion produces a financial crisis ..

I see you are wishing for the best for the blue collar workers too.

[JFree]

They need the bubbles and games to stop.

[Stupid Government Tricks]

I wish Amazon would break down all prices. They show total tax; why not break it down by jurisdiction? I learned some weird things about sales taxes in a previous job, and I bet politicians would hate having the public know.

* There was a zip code in San Francisco which didn't actually exist, and zeroed out your taxes. Use your full regular (probably only in SF) address but use the fake zipcode, presto, no taxes! Investigation showed it was meant for embassies and other tax-exempt diplomatic staff, so presumably every city with diplomatic staff would have similar fake zipcodes.

* If you lived in Berkeley, Contra Costa County CA, and bought something from San Mateo, San Mateo County CA, you were charged the Berkeley and Contra Costa sales taxes as the buyer's address, plus sales taxes for special districts in the seller's San Mateo County, such as a wildlife fund and women's shelter fun.

* Denver's stadium is financed not as a stadium district, but as a Science and Technology district.

* We had two different sales tax vendors, who agreed on the total tax 95% of the time, but the breakout was different at least half the time. This was probably because in some states, merchants cut one check for the state who then distributed the bits and pieces; other states, merchant had to write individual checks to each jurisdiction.

All that was my unofficial interpretation, not as a tax accountant or lawyer. There were so many goofy rules that I wouldn't be surprised to find my interpretation was not goofy enough.

So yeah, list those tariffs, and break out all those taxes. Let The People Know!

[Moderation4ever]

Tariffs are taxes on the American people and they should be reported like other taxes. Sorry to hear that Amazon backed down. I do hope someone takes up the task. Maybe an app for people's phone could tell people the Trump Tariff Tax they are paying

[windycityattorney]

Won't people see it anyway? If item cost is $20.00 and there is a $1.80 sales tax and shipping is free but the total is mysteriously $30.00... people are going to start asking questions. Maybe not MAGA people. But ya know. Those who can do simple math.

[JesseAz (Prime Meanster of Sarcasia)]

You can't do simple math nor simple law ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[chemjeff radical individualist]

Remember when the government "jawboning" private companies into compliance with government demands was considered a bad thing around here?

[sarcasmic]

That was different because of who was doing it.

[Incunabulum]

Was Amazon going to break out how much extra you're paying in taxes - foreign and domestic?

How were they going to provide verification of the information they were going to post?

No, this was all going to be a political stunt - probably not even at Bezo's behest but by some execs within Amazon using their position to push their own agendas, contra Bezos' clear policy (post-Biden) to stop doing that.

[sarcasmic]

All taxes are domestic you dumb fuck. Tariffs are taxes paid by importers, which are domestic businesses. Like all domestic taxes on domestic businesses, they get passed along to domestic consumers. You guys howl with rage when Democrats raise taxes on domestic businesses because you understand that it's just another domestic expense that ends up being paid by domestic customers. But when Trump unilaterally levies domestic taxes on domestic importing businesses that will get passed onto domestic customers, you say stupid shit about foreign taxes. Fucking fuck you guys are stupid. Painfully stupid.

[Don't get eliminated(How can you have any pudding if you don't eat yer penguin meat)]

An article about something that didn’t happen. Sad.

[Wygent03]

Who actually believes that these lectures whiners would present accurate numbers?? What they will present is a number showing the price in June 2024 and another showing the price in June, 2025. They will imply that the difference is totally due to tarifs. They will add a 10% or 20% bump to their margin just to be totally "fair and transparent". What a bunch of crooks.