Trump to request review of Pentagon cloud-computing contract

President Trump said Thursday he’ll ask the Department of Defense to look “very closely” at the Pentagon’s cloud computing contract that is expected to be awarded to Amazon.

“I’m getting tremendous complaints about the contract with the Pentagon and with Amazon,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “They’re saying it wasn’t competitively bid.

“Some of the greatest companies in the world are complaining about it, having to do with Amazon and the Department of Defense,” Trump continued. “And I will be asking them to look at it very closely to see what’s going on because I have had very few things where there’s been such complaining.”{mosads}

Bloomberg first reported on Wednesday that Trump has asked for more information on the $10 billion deal, which the Pentagon is expected to award next month. Amazon is considered the favorite to land the contract, though Microsoft is also in the running.

It’s unclear whether Trump would go as far as canceling the contract or directly intervene, but he has long been critical of Amazon and its owner, Jeff Bezos.

Trump reportedly learned of letters from Republican members of Congress to the White House and military leaders that claim the contract excludes some companies, including Oracle and IBM. 

Oracle has waged a months-long battle against the cloud computing contract. Oracle claims the procurement process was set up to favor Amazon, alleging potential conflicts of interest between Department of Defense employees and Amazon Web Services (AWS). A federal judge last week shot down Oracle’s claims, handing a win to the Pentagon in a decision that argued Oracle “cannot demonstrate prejudice” in the procurement process.

The highly anticipated decision paved the way for the Pentagon to award the contract — known as Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) — to either AWS or Microsoft’s cloud-computing service, Azure, likely by August. 

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) last week sent a letter to Trump’s national security adviser, John Bolton, asking the White House to delay the contract over concerns the procurement process has been unfair and biased in favor of Amazon.

Amazon has said it is merely the top company with the ability to host the level of classified and top-secret data that the Pentagon contract requires.

Updated at 2:39 p.m.