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President Trump Attacks Amazon, Incorrectly Claiming That It Owns The Washington Post For Tax Purposes (recode.net)

The Washington Post, which has been critical of Donald Trump and his administration in its coverage, has become the latest victim in Trump's Twitter tirade. On Wednesday, he accused Amazon of not "paying internet taxes (which they should)," adding that the company is using The Washington Post "in a scheme to dodge" the taxes. Quick fact check: Amazon doesn't own The Washington Post, Jeff Bezos -- in his personal capacity -- does. At any rate, Trump's furious tweets come a day after The Washington Post reported that a fake issue of Time magazine with Trump on the cover was hanging in some of the president's golf clubs. The timing of this is also awkward because just last week the president met with Bezos and other top executives to discuss ways the White House can modernize government and aid the tech industry. But the two have a long history. As Recode reminds: Meanwhile, Amazon is about to embark on what could be a lengthy government antitrust review of its bid to buy Whole Foods. Already looming large over the roughly $14 billion deal are the president's own comments: He has previously attacked Bezos and claimed the Post is a tax-dodging scheme for Amazon. "He thinks I'll go after him for antitrust," Trump said at one point during his campaign. "Because he's got a huge antitrust problem, because he's controlling so much, Amazon is controlling so much of what they are doing." Months later, Trump charged: "Believe me, if I become president, oh, do they have problems, they are going to have such problems." Meanwhile, Bezos isn't one to shy about his anti-Trump views either. At one point during the election, Bezos tweeted that he'd save a seat for Trump on his Blue Origin spacecraft, with the hashtag "sendDonaldtospace."

4 of 426 comments (clear)

  1. Fake News by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    Sad!

  2. Re:Timeline of Treason by ganjadude · · Score: 3, Funny

    #fakenews

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  3. Re:Really? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Sounds like you are tired of WINNING!!

  4. Re:Distinction without difference by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 4, Funny

    Bezos is likely to have purchased WaPo with tax-considerations paying at least a partial role — the other big concern, no doubt, was to save money on lobbying, by flat-out owning the biggest loudspeaker in the capital.

    Actually, he was testing the Amazon Echo in beta to see if it would subscribe to their newspaper and in the most literal sense Alexa did "buy a copy of The Washington Post." ;)

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