President Trump’s Attacks on Amazon Are Personal (and Not a Good Look for Business)

President Trump has a problem keeping his personal feelings separate from his job as president.

So what things set Trump off?

Lack of fealty, critical analysis of his latest decisions, and anyone more successful than he is at business would be at the top of that list.

And he really, really doesn’t like Jeff Bezos.

Bezos would be the founder and CEO of Amazon, and owner of the Washington Post.

Bezos is a genuine success story. He’s a self-made billionaire and the richest man in the world.

For a man of Trump’s fragile self-esteem, that knowledge alone is enough to drive him to distraction.

With that in mind, none of the moves Trump has made to go after Amazon should surprise anyone.

In Trump’s mind – or at least what he’s saying publicly – he believes that Amazon is somehow profiting unfairly from the U.S. postal service. Figures presented to him tell a different story, but he’s not listening.

The company has not answered his accusations, directly, but reports are that they’ve stepped up their lobbying efforts.

Also, back in March, Amazon announced they were settling a new fulfillment center in Missouri – a move that would bring around 1,500 jobs to the state. They alerted lawmakers for the state (Democrat Claire McCaskill and Republican Roy Blunt) to the move, over Twitter.

This is how they combat Trump’s efforts to harm the company.

Trump has berated Amazon and The Post on social media, briefly driving down Amazon’s stock price. And he has said publicly that he doesn’t believe the information he has been presented by some of his advisers and Brennan herself regarding the Postal Service’s contract with Amazon.

“I am right about Amazon costing the United States Post Office massive amounts of money for being their Delivery Boy,” he wrote on April 3. “Amazon should pay these costs (plus) and not have them bourn by the American Taxpayer. Many billions of dollars. P.O. leaders don’t have a clue (or do they?)!”

The facts are, Amazon is helping keep the U.S. Post Office afloat. “Snail mail” is being replaced by email and online bill pay. The internet has made the usual duties of the postal service nearly obsolete. The contract with Amazon is currently propping them up.

A recent report suggests President Trump personally pushed U.S. Postmaster General Meghan Brennan to double the rates charged to Amazon for delivery, outside the scope of the contract between them.

Brennan attempted to explain to Trump that Amazon’s business (along with several other businesses the postal service partners with for delivery) was to their benefit. She even provided slides to spell it out.

Failing to use finger puppets, he didn’t seem to get it.

Despite these presentations, Trump has continued to level criticism at Amazon. And last month, his critiques culminated in the signing of an executive order mandating a government review of the financially strapped Postal Service that could lead to major changes in the way it charges Amazon and others for package delivery.

Trump alleges Amazon is being subsidized by the Postal Service, and he has also accused The Post as being Amazon’s “chief lobbyist” as well as a tax shelter – both false charges. He says Amazon uses these advantages to push bricks-and-mortar companies out of business. Some administration officials say several of Trump’s attacks aimed at Amazon have come in response to articles in The Post that he didn’t like.

The three people familiar with these exchanges spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the White House‘s internal deliberations.

Brennan and Trump have met at the White House about the matter several times, beginning in 2017, and most recently four months ago, the three people said. The meetings have never appeared on Trump’s public schedule. Brennan has spent her career at the Postal Service, starting 32 years ago as a letter carrier. In 2014, the Postal Service’s Board of Governors voted to appoint her as postmaster general.

Something… something… free market… something… something…

To date, Trump has called in advisers in an attempt to find something with which to condemn Amazon.

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, Domestic Policy Council Director Andrew Bremberg (who has acted as the liaison between Brennan and the White House), and then-National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn have all met with Trump to hash out what he sees is “the Amazon problem.”

Cohn, in particular, attempted to impress upon the president the fair and beneficial nature of the relationship between Amazon and the U.S. Postal Service.

Cohn resigned in March, finally hitting his breaking point with a president who seems unwilling to take good counsel.

Amazon primarily uses the Postal Service for the “last mile” of its deliveries. It brings the packages to the post office closest to the final destination, and then the Postal Service takes it from there. The Postal Service says other companies also have “last-mile” agreements with it but declines to say whom.

Amazon said it spent $21.7 billion on shipping costs in 2017, a figure that includes sorting, delivery center and transportation costs. Roughly 40 percent of its packages are delivered by the Postal Service, according to some analysts, a figure neither Amazon nor the Postal Service have confirmed. It is not known how much Amazon pays the Postal Service each year and what percentage of its items are shipped via the Postal Service.

The Postal Service, meanwhile, reported shipping and package income of $19.5 billion last year, an 11.8 percent increase from one year before. This increase wasn’t enough to stop the Postal Service from losing money for the eleventh straight year. That’s largely because of the continued decline in first-class mail, and expensive health benefit costs that the Postal Service must set aside for future retirees, according to data released by the agency.

The question becomes should a sitting president attempt to sink a private business, in order to favor an inefficient government entity?

He shouldn’t, but who has the guts to stand up to Trump’s temper tantrums and tell him?