Trump’s personal crusade against the media
by digby
He’s figured out that he might be able to use anti-trust laws to destroy his enemies in the press:
Capitol Hill wants Facebook’s blood, but President Trump isn’t interested. Instead, the tech behemoth Trump wants to go after is Amazon, according to five sources who’ve discussed it with him. “He’s obsessed with Amazon,” a source said. “Obsessed.”
What we’re hearing: Trump has talked about changing Amazon’s tax treatment because he’s worried about mom-and-pop retailers being put out of business.
A source who’s spoken to POTUS: “He’s wondered aloud if there may be any way to go after Amazon with antitrust or competition law.”
Trump’s deep-seated antipathy toward Amazon surfaces when discussing tax policy and antitrust cases. The president would love to clip CEO Jeff Bezos’ wings. But he doesn’t have a plan to make that happen.
Behind the president’s thinking: Trump’s wealthy friends tell him Amazon is destroying their businesses. His real estate buddies tell him — and he agrees — that Amazon is killing shopping malls and brick-and-mortar retailers.
Trump tells people Amazon has gotten a free ride from taxpayers and cushy treatment from the U.S. Postal Service.
“The whole post office thing, that’s very much a perception he has,” another source said. “It’s been explained to him in multiple meetings that his perception is inaccurate and that the post office actually makes a ton of money from Amazon.”
Axios’ Ina Fried notes: The Postal Service actually added delivery on Sunday in some cities because Amazon made it worthwhile.
Trump also pays close attention to the Amazon founder’s ownership of The Washington Post, which the president views as Bezos’ political weapon.
Trump never talks about Mark Zuckerberg or Facebook:
He isn’t tuned in to the debate over how they handle people’s data, and thinks the Russia story is a hoax, sources say.
Axios’ Kim Hart points out: “Trump told Axios last year he doesn’t mind Facebook because it helps him reach his audience. He’s an old-school businessman who sees the world in terms of tangible assets: real estate, physical mail delivery, Main Street, grocery stores. It reminds me of the story Jim wrote a while back about Trump’s fixation with 1950s life. Amazon takes direct aim at some of the core components of mid-century business.”
I’m all for breaking up these big behemoths but you’ll notice that Trump only focuses on those like Time-Warner and Amazon which have press outlets that don’t toe his line. And I’m sorry, I don’t believe for a minute that Trump is hearing from his “friends in business” that Amazon is destroying the American way of life. The shopping malls are hurting for sure and the mom and pop local businesses have been destroyed by the big box stores like Walmart and the online businesses like Amazon for years. But these people all know that there will be no going back even if Amazon and Walmart are completely destroyed.
Let’s not kid ourselves, he’s just hit on this argument in order to use the power of the government to silence his critics.
Amazon took a huge hit to its stock price today so Trump got some satisfaction … Maybe he figures that Bezos will tell the Washington Post to back off now.
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