Drew Angerer/Getty Images Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos
- President Donald Trump is reportedly "obsessed" with Amazon.
- The president is considering targeting the
retail giant's tax status or antitrust action. - Trump blames Amazon for the decline of brick-and-mortar retailers and the pain that has caused real-estate developers.
- And he thinks the company is getting a free ride from the US Postal Service.
President Donald Trump is "obsessed" with Amazon, according to a new report, and is eyeing legal means to go after the online retail giant.
According to Axios' Jonathan Swan, Trump believes Amazon is a negative force for smaller, locally owned retailers and wants to find a way to curtail the company's dominance in online shopping. Among the options he is considering: a change to Amazon's tax status or cracking down through antitrust rules.
Trump's considerations come as the Supreme Court considers a case that would give states more power to collect sales tax on online retailers.
While Amazon already imposes the applicable state sales tax on goods it sells, when a third-party seller uses the platform, it is up to that seller to collect sales tax. Many third-party sellers on Amazon do not currently collect those taxes.
Trump hasn't been shy about his distaste for Amazon and its CEO Jeff Bezos in the past, previously tweeting that the retailer is hurting the US Postal Service and attacking Bezos for his ownership of The Washington Post.
"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!"
Concern over Amazon's effect on the American retail landscape is widely held. But Trump's grumblings about the company's relationship with the US Postal Service attacks seem unfounded, given that much of the USPS' financial woes come from funding mismanagement, pension obligations, and the non-package side of its business.
According to Axios, Trump has also soured on Amazon in part because fellow real-estate developers have complained to Trump that the company is helping to kill brick-and-mortar retailers and malls.
Axios said that the president does not have a clear plan to go after the company yet.
