Amazon said Tuesday it would not be displaying the cost of tariffs right next to products’ total prices on any of the company’s websites, contrary to a news report that said the company was planning to do so.
During a press briefing Tuesday, White House spokeswoman Karoline Levitt pushed back hard against the news article, telling reporters that such a move by Amazon would have been “a hostile and political act.”
When asked about the news report, Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said he found it hard to find any other explanation for adding the costs of the tariffs by the online commerce behemoth than playing politics.
“Well, when they first announced that they were going to show the cost, I’m sure a charitable interpretation existed, but I just couldn’t find it,” Kennedy told The Daily Signal.
“My thought immediately was, if [Amazon chief Jeff] Bezos is going to play politics and list the extra costs of the tariffs, then he ought to go back and for each product, compute the added cost of [former President Joe] Biden’s inflation,” the Louisiana senator said.
“Somebody probably pointed that out to him, and he changed his mind,” Kennedy concluded.
Leavitt told reporters that she had a phone call with President Donald Trump about the report. Bezos, who also owns The Washington Post, prevented the paper’s editorial board from endorsing then-Vice President Kamala Harris during the 2024 presidential election. After Trump’s victory in November, he joined a parade of tech titans and world leaders in dining with the then president-elect at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
Bezos was also one of a bevy of tech leaders who were guests at Trump’s inauguration, for which Amazon donated $1 million. The president reportedly called Bezos on Tuesday to ask about the news report.
Amazon’s corporate policy has also sought to appease the president and his allies. The online retailer reversed a lengthy ban on a book critical of the transgender movement.
At the Tuesday press conference, the White House press secretary noted that the company had agreed to censor comments and reviews related to Chinese leader Xi Jinping in the past, describing Amazon’s actions as having “partnered with a Chinese propaganda arm.”
Amazon said in a statement that “the team that runs our ultralow cost Amazon Haul store considered the idea of listing import charges on certain products.”
However, that policy for Haul, a spinoff website of the company that promotes products that cost $20 or less, was never implemented. The statement appeared to definitively close the door on the idea.
“This was never approved and is not going to happen,” the statement said.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said at a press conference on Tuesday that the issue would have to be “a conversation that folks at Amazon will have to have with the White House.”
“You know, I think at the end of the day, again, this administration will be judged by the results that they get,” Thune said.
The South Dakota senator expressed confidence in the president’s decisions.
“I don’t for a minute believe that this administration isn’t making the right decisions that leads [sic] to the policy outcomes that are going to make the American people … more safe, more secure, and more economically prosperous,” Thune said.
