White House and Amazon clash over tariff transparency

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4.4 • 116 Ratings

🗓️ 29 April 2025

⏱️ 13 minutes

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Summary

On this special episode of the GeekWire Podcast, we break down a public clash between Amazon and the White House over tariffs, transparency, and politics.

After a report from Punchbowl News suggested Amazon would start displaying the cost of President Trump’s tariffs on product prices, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt called it a “hostile and political act” during a press briefing — saying she had just spoken to the president about it.

Amazon responded by clarifying that the idea had come from a small team behind its Amazon Haul discount storefront but was never approved and “not going to happen.” Meanwhile, CNN reported that Trump personally called Jeff Bezos to complain.

Related links and content

GeekWire: ‘Not going to happen’: Amazon responds to White House barb over purported tariff transparency plan

Punchbowl News: Amazon to display tariff costs for consumers

Reuters, 2021: Amazon partnered with China propaganda arm

CNN's Alayna Treene on X: "Scoop: Trump called Amazon founder Jeff Bezos Tuesday morning to complain about reports that his company was considering displaying the cost U.S. tariffs next to prices for certain products on its website, two senior White House officials told @CNN."

Amazon statement: "The team that runs our ultra low cost Amazon Haul store considered the idea of listing import charges on certain products. This was never approved and is not going to happen.”

GeekWire Podcast: How Amazon is adapting to the TikTok generation, and what it says about the state of Prime

With GeekWire co-founder Todd Bishop

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This Geekwire podcast is brought to you by BECU. Stay tuned to the break as Brian Westbrook
0:06.0	interviews BECU's Stacey Black for today's money hack about financial strategies for navigating
0:12.5	unexpected career change. For more money hacks, check out geekwire.com slash BECU.
0:18.7	I will take this since I just got off the phone with the president about Amazon's announcement.
0:24.4	This is a hostile and political act by Amazon.
0:29.0	Why did Amazon do this when the Biden administration hiked inflation to the highest level in 40 years?
0:41.0	Hey, everyone. It's Todd Bishop here with a quick special episode of the
0:45.2	Geekwire podcast. Today we're going to be talking about an unusual and pretty intense
0:50.4	public dispute between Amazon that bubbled over during the White House press briefing
0:55.1	today and the White House over tariffs, transparency, and politics.
1:01.3	We're going to start with a clip in just a moment from the White House press briefing with
1:05.1	Caroline Levitt, and then I'll break down the backstory and explain why it matters and Amazon's response.
1:11.9	But at a high level, Amazon pushed back Tuesday on a punchable news report that said it was preparing to show how President Trump's new tariffs were going to impact product prices on imported goods.
1:25.1	And the whole idea was that Amazon was going to list the specific cost of the tariff next
1:30.6	to the price.
1:32.1	And White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt during the briefing today called that a, quote,
1:36.6	hostile and political act and said she had just gotten off the phone with President Trump
1:41.4	about it.
1:42.5	Now, Amazon spokesperson Tim Doyle in a statement to Geekwire and others said that the idea
1:48.2	came from the team behind Amazon Hall, a discount storefront that Amazon launched a few months
1:53.5	ago, but that it was never approved and not going to happen.
1:57.8	Now as we'll get into a little later, Amazon's statements on this shifted a little bit
	...

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