Trump Again Speaks Out Against Amazon
President Donald Trump lashed out again at Amazon.com in a tweet Thursday, a day after the company's stock tanked following a report that Trump wanted to "go after" the e-commerce giant for alleged antitrust violations. "Unlike others, they pay little or no taxes to state & local governments, use our Postal System as their Delivery Boy (causing tremendous loss to the U.S.), and are putting many thousands of retailers out of business!" Trump wrote on Twitter. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters Wednesday there were "no announcements and no specific policies or actions that we're currently pushing forward" regarding Amazon.
Total Retail's Take: This is the third time in about a year that President Trump has voiced his displeasure with Amazon. In the past, Jeff Bezos, Amazon's CEO, has been an outspoken critic of Trump's political views, and Trump has gone after Bezos for Amazon's tax collection practices. It's true that Amazon is disrupting the retail industry, but the assertion that it's not paying taxes is not. As Total Retail noted last year, Amazon paid $879 million in income taxes in the 12 months that ended in June 2017. In that filing, Amazon also indicated that it expected its future taxes to increase. What's more, Amazon does collect sales tax from consumers in 45 states and the District of Columbia. (The issue of online sales tax will heat up this year as the The Supreme Court will hear arguments over whether all states can require online retailers to collect sales tax from consumers.) Critics of Trump also questioned his understanding of the U.S. Postal Service, as it's not clear in the tweet if he understands that the USPS an independent agency of the United States federal government. In addition, many observers believe that Amazon is one of the few things keeping the USPS afloat.
