President Donald Trump believes the U.S. Post Office is not charging Amazon enough money to deliver its packages, he said in a Friday tweet.
Why is the United States Post Office, which is losing many billions of dollars a year, while charging Amazon and others so little to deliver their packages, making Amazon richer and the Post Office dumber and poorer? Should be charging MUCH MORE!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 29, 2017
What exactly sparked this missive from the president is unclear, but he has had a long and contentious history with Amazon and its CEO Jeff Bezos. The Post Office does, however, appear to be delivering Amazon packages for a price well below its cost of operations, essentially subsidizing the internet retailer’s bottom line.
“An April analysis from Citigroup estimates that if costs were fairly allocated, on average parcels would cost $1.46 more to deliver,” Josh Sandbulte pointed out in a July op-ed for The Wall Street Journal.
Amazon is doing great damage to tax paying retailers. Towns, cities and states throughout the U.S. are being hurt – many jobs being lost!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 16, 2017
So many stories about me in the @washingtonpost are Fake News. They are as bad as ratings challenged @CNN. Lobbyist for Amazon and taxes?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 25, 2017
If @amazon ever had to pay fair taxes, its stock would crash and it would crumble like a paper bag. The @washingtonpost scam is saving it!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 7, 2015