On the morning of its first 100th day in office, the Trump administration accused Amazon of a “hostile political action.” The crime? A rumored plan to add a line during checkout that showed customers exactly what Trump’s tariffs cost them.
Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent held a press conference this morning on “Unleashing Economic Greatness.” The pair took questions from the crowd of reporters. Someone asked about the news, out of Punchbowl, that Amazon would soon add a line item at checkout that detailed the “import costs” of purchased goods. If Amazon did this it would join other retailers like Temu that are letting customers know why the cost of buying products from it has more than doubled in the past few weeks.
“This is a hostile and political act by Amazon,” Leavitt said. “Why didn’t Amazon do this when the Biden administration hiked inflation to the highest level in 40 years? And I would also add that it’s not a surprise. As Reuters wrote, Amazon has partnered with a Chinese propaganda arm. So this is another reason why Americans should buy American.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siqENvfCkWQ
Shortly after the press conference, Amazon released a statement about the issue and swore it wouldn’t tell anyone how much the tariffs cost them. “The team that runs our ultra low cost Amazon Haul store has considered listing import charges on certain products,” it said, according to Jeff Stein of The Washington Post. “This was never a consideration for the main Amazon site and nothing has been implemented on any Amazon properties.”
This short saga shows how the Trump administration plans to deal with the chaos that it has created: By attempting to bully companies into denying the reality that his tariffs are making it more expensive (or potentially impossible) to buy millions of different products. The strategy here—to the extent there is one at all—is to pressure companies into eating tariff costs, pretend that none of this is happening, or to add opacity into the process by having prices shoot up without retailers breaking out what portion of them is from Trump’s tariffs.
The cost of stuff in America is going up. Trump’s 145 percent tariff on goods manufactured in China is already having a dramatic effect on the economy and will likely change the way Americans buy things.
Chastising Amazon or any other retailer during a press conference won’t lower prices and won’t change the fact that Trump’s actions have consequences. He cowed Amazon here, but it’s early days yet and reality can only bend so much before it breaks.
