In This Article:
President Donald Trump says he will personally phone chief executives who make business moves he dislikes, a tactic he deployed last week with Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) founder Jeff Bezos over planned tariff disclosures on the e‑commerce giant's site.
What Happened: In an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press," Trump recounted calling Bezos after Punchbowl News reported Amazon might label import fees tied to the administration's new 145% tariff on Chinese goods. "He's just a very nice guy," Trump said. "I asked him about [the tariff disclosure]. He said, ‘Well, I don't want to do that,' and he took it off immediately." Amazon later confirmed the low‑cost Haul storefront had only "considered" the idea and dropped it.
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Trump insisted he would ring any CEO whose actions he deemed "hurtful to the country." He framed tariffs not as consumer taxes but as incentives to reshore manufacturing. "The company eats the tariff," he told moderator Kristen Welker.
Asked whether fewer toys on store shelves would mark success, Trump replied, "Maybe the children will have two dolls instead of thirty. ... We don't have to waste money on a trade deficit with China for junk we don't need."
Why It Matters: Economist Peter Schiff blasted Trump's call to Jeff Bezos, calling it "the type of stuff you might expect to see in China." Sen. Elizabeth Warren followed up with a pointed letter to the Amazon founder, asking if Trump's angry phone call pushed Bezos to kill the tariff‑label plan in exchange for "promises or favors." Warren warned that scrubbing tariff costs "keeps consumers in the dark" and could signal a corrupt quid‑pro‑quo between Big Tech and the White House.
Days later, Trump marked his first 100 days back in office by welcoming more than two dozen corporate chiefs to the White House. He used the "Investing in America" event to spotlight new spending commitments from powerhouses such as NVIDIA Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA), Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ), Hyundai Motor (OTC:HYMTF), Toyota Motor Corp (NYSE:TM), and SoftBank Group (OTC:SFTBF), according to officials who briefed Reuters.