President Trump went to Twitter to address issues that he had regarding the retail store, Amazon and about the Washington Post. We have seen, on many occasions, where Trump has put his issues on Twitter. This is nothing new.

Accusations that Trump made against Amazon

Over the last couple of days, Trump let loose a series of tweets out to the public accusing Amazon of not paying their fair share of taxes. In addition to that, he accuses Amazon of receiving a deal from the United States Postal Service and for setting up the Washington Post as a lobbyist for the company.

Even though Trump put those tweets out about Amazon, nothing seems to be happening, on Amazon’s part, and the tweets did not affect their interests. Trump is trying to transform from a form of venal corruption in which his businesses seem to be involved, to a form of systemic corruption. Moving to systemic corruption can affect any business, whether they have been succeeding or failing. It is not just Amazon that is involved with this systemic corruption. Other companies in the United States are also involved with different policy issues that Trump is not making public, for example, Sinclair Broadcasting and their special treatment from the Federal Communications Commission(FCC).

Amazon, on the other hand, is benefiting from Trump’s laws with corporate tax cuts and with his approach to labor law enforcement.

Explanation of the accusations

The issues that Trump has against Amazon seem to be that he believes they do not pay their fair share in taxes and they do not pay fair rates to the US Postal Service. In addition, he thinks that Amazon uses the Post, also owned by Jeff Bezos, as a lobbyist. Trump believes that the competition that Amazon has had with other businesses has put those companies out of business.

Through all of the tweets explaining Trump’s issues with Amazon, he was only giving half-truths about everything that he was saying. With taxes, a state can only charge an internet retailer sales tax if they have a physical store in that particular state which can give internet retailers an advantage. In addition, Amazon’s warehouses are now so huge that they do pay sales tax in every state that has one.

When it comes to the Postal service, they are decreasing in profits because of the requirement that they have to pre-fund their pension obligations. With Trump saying that the Washington Post is a publicity operation for Amazon, or calling it a "lobbying" operation is a misunderstanding as to what lobbying is and what it is about.

As of right now, Trump is not really doing anything about Amazon and he is not leveling against the company either. Time will tell.
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