The president would love to clip CEO Jeff Bezos’ wings. Trump has discussed altering the company's tax treatment because several of his friends told him Amazon is hurting their businesses and "killing shopping malls and brick-and-mortar retailers," according to Axios. Trump also pays close attention to the Amazon founder's ownership of The Washington Post, which the president views as Bezos’ political weapon. Get more stories like this by signing up for Jonathan Swan's weekly political lookahead newsletter, Axios Sneak Peek.
– "He's obsessed with Amazon," a source says of President Trump. "Obsessed." While Congress deals with the fallout from Facebook's Cambridge Analytica fiasco, five sources tell Axios the president remains focused instead on another tech giant. Sources say Trump's friends, particularly in real estate, are complaining to him about Amazon hurting their businesses by replacing malls and other physical retail locations. Kim Hart at Axios says Trump has a "fixation with 1950s life" and "Amazon takes direct aim at some of the core components of mid-century business." "Amazon is doing great damage to tax paying retailers," Trump tweeted in August. "Towns, cities and states throughout the U.S. are being hurt - many jobs being lost!" It also doesn't help that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns the Washington Post. Sources tell Axios that Trump wants to target Amazon. “He’s wondered aloud if there may be any way to go after Amazon with antitrust or competition law," one source says. He may also look at how it pays taxes. After the Axios story was published Wednesday, Amazon stock dropped 6.4% and lost $46.6 billion in value, the Los Angeles Times. According to CNBC, it later rebounded a bit—down 4.6% and more than $33 billion—as of this story's publishing. On the other hand, sources say Trump never mentions Mark Zuckerberg or Facebook and hasn't been following the Cambridge Analytica scandal. "He doesn’t mind Facebook because it helps him reach his audience," Hart says.