Amazon shortly denied a lot of the report—however not earlier than White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt channeled her boss, President Donald Trump, with abject fury on the mere notion of value transparency for customers.
“Why didn’t Amazon do this when the Biden administration hiked inflation to the highest level in 40 years?” Leavitt mentioned. “And I would also add that it’s not a surprise because, as Reuters recently wrote, Amazon has recently partnered with a Chinese propaganda arm, so this is another reason why Americans should buy American.”
Amazon does checklist taxes on its checkout web page, so sure, Amazon completely does inform customers of government-imposed charges on gross sales, even when Biden was president. However this fury is weird, provided that Trump is so deeply infatuated with tariffs.
On April 2, within the White Home’s Rose Backyard, President Donald Trump proudly introduced new tariffs that he would stroll again simply days later, after the tariffs brought on international financial chaos.
Throughout an interview on the Financial Membership of Chicago on Oct. 15, 2024, he mentioned, “To me the most beautiful word in the dictionary is ‘tariff.’” He added that the phrase had such unfavourable connotations that “[i]t needs a public relations firm.”
Again and again on final yr’s marketing campaign path, he hit his pro-tariff message.
Right here he was just a few days later, this time in Michigan, saying, “It is essentially the most lovely phrase within the dictionary. You’ve gotten a variety of phrases which are rattling good like ‘love.’ However I believe it is extra lovely than love. The phrase ‘tariff.’”
He saved the theme going at his inauguration.
Regardless of his backtracking, it’s clear: Trump loves tariffs.
So why is he abruptly so offended at Amazon for wanting to place the phrase “tariffs” on its product listings? He ought to be pleased! He ought to need essentially the most lovely phrase on the planet in as many locations as potential.
The explanations are apparent. Tariffs are trashing the financial system. They brought on the financial system to contract within the first quarter of 2025. A recession is usually outlined as two consecutive quarters of financial contraction, and we’re midway there. No severe individual believes that even larger tariffs will make issues higher.
Trump might wish to screech on Fact Social that “[t]ariffs will soon start kicking in, and companies are starting to move into the USA in record numbers.” However even when that had been the case (and it gained’t be), that may nonetheless imply larger costs for customers. And provided that Trump gained the election largely on his promise to decrease costs “on Day 1,” he can’t afford to confess that he fucked this one up royally.
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