President Donald Trump once more demonstrated why he is the most distrusted world leader today. He tweeted on Thursday morning an error-filled rant about Jeff Bezos, the Washington Post, and Amazon which just indicated he needs to learn more about basic taxation.
Using again his favorite buzz phrase “Fake News” after he was just told by Time to stop using fake magazine covers of the publication in his golf courses, Trump accused Amazon, the retail giant of not paying Internet Taxes. The rant is part of his feud with The Washington Post, which Bezos purchased and runs stories that expose things wrong with the Trump administration.
The #AmazonWashingtonPost, sometimes referred to as the guardian of Amazon not paying internet taxes (which they should) is FAKE NEWS!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 28, 2017
Newspaper owner and finances
The New York Daily News pointed out several errors in Trump’s tweets. First, the real estate billionaire claimed Amazon owns The Washington Post. Bezos purchased the influential and award-winning newspaper in 2013 for $250 million, however, it is run as an independent company.
The U.S. does not collect Internet taxes, and the country’s Congress has not even tried to introduce one. Amazon does not pay state sales taxes because it does not own bricks-and-mortar stores in many states, but in 45 states where the retail giant has outlets, Amazon paid $229 million income taxes for the first three months of 2017.
The New York Daily News pointed to Trump’s bad tax history such as his failure to release his tax return, the first president to do it in 40 years. It cited a leaked 1995 tax return which showed almost $1 billion in losses in Trump’s businesses that allowed him to avoid paying federal income tax for 18 years.
Trump also claimed in a December 2015 Tweet The Washington Post is losing money, but Bezos allegedly keeps taxes down at Amazon, a no-profit firm.
The two business ventures of Bezos are both profitable. Michael Lippert, the portfolio manager of Baron Funds and an Amazon shareholder, said Trump was just creating noise on Twitter because Bezos is critical of some of the president’s policies, including the immigration ban.
Picking a fight with Bezos
Quartz observed Trump is apparently picking a fight with Bezos who is known to be a sophisticated political operator.
The businessman is a sharp contrast to Trump who has bungled his first five months in office as the 45th president of the U.S.
Quartz cited as an example the Obamacare repeal bill that even some GOP members have rejected for its potential impact of depriving 23 million Americans of health coverage. It noted Trump’s efforts to push the Republicans’ health care bill across the line have fallen flat.
