There’s a fresh spat brewing between the White House and Amazon.
Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, on Tuesday accused the online retail giant of being “hostile and political,” citing a report — disputed by Amazon — from Punchbowl News saying that the company would start displaying the exact cost of tariff-related price increases alongside its products.
Displaying the import fees would have made clear to American consumers that they are shouldering the cost of President Trump’s tariff policies rather than China, as he and his top officials have often claimed would be the case.
After the report was published, Mr. Trump spoke about it over the phone with Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder, according to three people familiar with the exchange.
An Amazon spokesman said the company had considered a similar idea, but only on part of its site, Amazon Haul, which competes with Temu, a Chinese retailer. Temu primarily ships directly to consumers and has begun displaying “import charges” to reflect the end of a customs loophole that had exempted low-priced items from tariffs.
“Teams discuss ideas all the time,” the spokesman, Ty Rogers, said in a statement. He said it was never under consideration for the main Amazon site, adding: “This was never approved and is not going to happen.”
The Commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, wrote on social media that this was “Good news.”
Ms. Leavitt had ripped into the retailer during a press briefing Tuesday morning while standing beside Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. She said that she had just been talking on the phone with the president about the report. She also asked aloud in her briefing why Amazon hadn’t done such a thing when prices increased during the Biden administration because of inflation.
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