Trump Says Amazon's `Post Office Scam' Must Stop in Fresh Attack

• March 31 2018
• Ros Krasny, Justin Sink

President Donald Trump lit into Amazon.com for the second time in three days with a pair of Twitter messages that said the online retailer “must pay real costs (and taxes) now!”

President Donald Trump lit into Amazon.com for the second time in three days with a pair of Twitter messages that said the online retailer “must pay real costs (and taxes) now!”

The president on Saturday claimed, citing reports he didn’t specify, that the U.S. Post Office “will lose $1.50 on average for each package it delivers for Amazon.” Amazon has said the postal service, which has financial problems stretching back for years, makes money on its deliveries.

Amazon shed $53 billion in market value on Wednesday after Axios reported that the president is “obsessed” with regulating the e-commerce giant. Those losses were pared back on Thursday, the final day of a shortened trading week.

Amazon.com and the Washington Post, which is owned by Amazon Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos, have been regular punching-bags for Trump. In July, the president mused about whether the newspaper was “being used as a lobbyist weapon” to keep Congress from looking into Amazon’s business practices. He echoed that comment on Saturday.

A sudden increase in postal service rates would cost Amazon about $2.6 billion a year, according to a report by Citigroup from April 2017. That report predicted United Parcel Service Inc. and FedEx Corp. would also raise rates in response to a postal service hike.

Trump is spending Easter Weekend at his resort in Palm Beach, Florida, and arrived at the nearby Trump International Golf Club early Saturday just after the tweets were published.