'The stores are all gone': Trump continues raging at Amazon in White House meeting
- President Donald Trump continued his war on Amazon and its CEO Jeff Bezos on Tuesday.
- Trump said the "Post Office is losing billions of dollars" from deliveries of Amazon's packages.
- Trump also said Amazon was pushing smaller retailers out of business.
- The attacks continue a nearly week-long battle against the online retail giant.
President Donald Trump continued his war against Amazon on Tuesday during a meeting with leaders from the Baltic nations, blasting the online giant for their relationship with the US Postal Service and other retailers.
During a working lunch with the presidents of Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia, Trump riffed on the business practices of Amazon and said that the retailer is taking advantage of
"The Post Office is losing billions of dollars and the taxpayers are paying for that money because it delivers packages for Amazon at a very below cost," Trump said. "That's not fair to the United States, and it's not fair to out taxpayers, and Amazon has the money to pay the fair rate at the Post Office."
Trump also said that the Post Office "loses $1.47 on every package" it delivers for Amazon, an inaccurate claim. The USPS actually does make money from parcel delivery, including Amazon's packages. But, Trump appears to be referring to a recent estimate from Citi that showed the Postal Service would need to charge $1.46 more per package to be in line with market rates from private competitors like UPS and FedEx.
Most of the USPS' financial woes are derived from the delivery of letters and first class mail along with its onerous pension system.
Trump also blasted Amazon for the company's trickle-down effect on other brick-and-mortar retailers and small businesses.
"You look at some of these small towns where they had a beautiful Main Street with stores, but the stores are all gone," Trump said.
Trump's war on Amazon and its CEO Jeff Bezos started after an Axios report that Trump is "obsessed" with the company and is looking at ways to crack down on the retailer either through a change to its tax status or antitrust action.
In just under a week since the report, Trump repeatedly ripped the firm on Twitter and sent its stock swooning. Amazon was mixed in trading on Tuesday, down just $3.85, or 0.3%, as of 1 p.m. ET.