USA Today editorial board blasts Trump for Amazon attacks

The USA Today editorial board on Wednesday criticized President Trump for going after Amazon and a number of other American companies.

In the op-ed, the board says that any other administration would view Amazon as “a phenomenally innovative and disruptive business that generally plays by the rules, pays its taxes, and provides something of a lifeline for a troubled postal service.”

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“For Trump, however, soundness of arguments seems to count less than his personal animosities,” the board writes. “And he thinks his Amazon outbursts will rattle the cage of its CEO, Jeff Bezos, who bought The Washington Post in 2013.”

The president renewed attacks against the retail giant in recent days, claiming that the company pays too little taxes and incorrectly saying that it costs the U.S. Postal Service “a fortune.”

Only fools, or worse, are saying that our money losing Post Office makes money with Amazon. THEY LOSE A FORTUNE, and this will be changed. Also, our fully tax paying retailers are closing stores all over the country…not a level playing field!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 2, 2018

The board argues that Amazon has been good about paying its taxes and has minimized its federal income tax obligations by valuing growth over profit.

They said that a president hasn’t politicized business this intensely since former President Kennedy intervened in the 1963 steel strike to push companies to agree to union demands.

They noted that the moves made by Trump go further than Kennedy’s because they are petty and personal and go against the Republican idea that government shouldn’t pick winners and losers.

Trump’s argument that Amazon is hurting the Postal Service is even more flawed, the board noted, because the Postal Service package delivery service — which includes Amazon — is thriving.

If Trump wants to help the Postal Service, the board said, he should pressure Congress to pass a bill that fixes its financial issues.

Trump has gone after Amazon — which saw its stock drop after Trump’s recent attacks — and Bezos in the past, often linking his contempt for The Washington Post to Amazon.