The Trump administration is now at war with Amazon, after reports that the mega company will show consumers just how much more President Donald Trump's nonsensical tariffs will cost them.
Punchbowl News first reported on Tuesday that Amazon will display tariff costs next to the cost of each item, so consumers will see how much more they have to pay thanks to Trump’s trade policy. Amazon has since disputed the report, telling The Washington Post that it was just their Amazon Haul store that considered listing the tariff prices and that it was “never a consideration for the main Amazon site.”
Still, after Punchbowl’s report, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the move is "a hostile and political act by Amazon."
“Why didn’t Amazon do this when the Biden administration hiked inflation to the highest level in 40 years?” Leavitt said from the briefing room, a ridiculous spin attempt as former President Joe Biden didn’t put asinine tariffs on every imported item. “And I would also add that it’s not a surprise because as Reuters recently wrote, Amazon has recently partnered with a Chinese propaganda arm, so this is another reason why Americans should buy American.”
Of course, the White House was only mad that if Amazon actually implemented this policy, they could no longer lie and say that Trump's tariffs will be paid for by China.
Every expert with half a brain said Trump’s claim was false, but now consumers will see directly that they are paying the import fees, and not the Chinese or other countries that export goods.
Even if Amazon doesn’t list tariff prices, companies that sell items on Amazon were already raising prices thanks to Trump’s tariffs.
While Amazon claims it won’t list import charges, other companies already are.
The online retailer Temu, a China-based company, has already added a line item at checkout for import fees. The move has led consumers to post angrily on Reddit about how much more the tariffs are costing them. One poster wrote in a Temu group on the social networking site:
“Hey all my fellow temu friends. It's a sad day for us. I am so pissed at that idiot trump, the only people that benifit from high tarrifs are him and his rich friends. The rest of us got screwed. I hope that when his time is up, someone puts everything back to normal and we get temu back but honestly I don't see that happening 😕. I'm so mad at him right now for doing this to us!!! He sucks so bad! I don't mean to make this political but I loved being able to get whatever I needed on temu and now we have to pay double or more to get it from there or somewhere else. He just keeps screwing over the working class and making his rich friends more rich. I'm so disgusted and angry!!!”
Post after post had similar stories from Temu shoppers who were hit by the import fees.
The CEOs of big-box stores Target, Walmart, and Home Depot also met with the White House last week to warn that the tariffs Trump imposed are set to spike prices and even lead to shortages at stores as the tariffs are leading companies to halt orders of products.
And that will have further negative downstream effects for port workers and truck drivers, who won’t have any goods to unload from cargo ships or to transport across the country.
In fact, on Tuesday, UPS announced that it is cutting 20,000 jobs, saying they anticipate the tariffs will “lower volumes” from Amazon, which is their biggest customer, CBS News reported.
Ultimately, Trump's tariffs are already unpopular. A Civiqs poll conducted for Daily Kos found 53% of voters are opposed to tariffs, with 49% of those voters strongly opposed. The same survey found that voters want the Republican-controlled Congress to limit Trump’s tariffs.
That poll was conducted before a number of Trump’s tariffs went into effect, so voters only hated the policy in the abstract. But now that consumers are going to see the tariffs’ direct impacts, public sentiment could drop even further.
After Leavitt slammed Amazon for its decision to show consumers the tariffs they’ll be paying on their orders, Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee mocked her and the Trump administration for not taking accountability for their own actions.
“To fuck around is human, to find out is divine,” the committee wrote in a post on X.
Thank you to the Daily Kos community who continues to fight so hard with Daily Kos. Your reader support means everything. We will continue to have you covered and keep you informed, so please donate just $3 to help support the work we do.
