Trump pressures Amazon to hide tariff costs from consumers, prompting retreat by Bezos’ company

President Donald Trump personally forced Amazon founder Jeff Bezos on Tuesday to leave a plan to expose how new administration tariffs hit American pockets, a rare and direct intervention in the strategy of pricing one of the largest online retailers in the world.

According to resources familiar with this matter, Trump placed a phone call to Bezos early on Tuesday after Punchbowl News reported that Amazon was preparing to roll a feature that would show the US import costs of importing by the US imports next to product prices. This feature, which aims to increase transparency, will inform consumers how much they have paid for because of the newly imposed duties – especially the sweeping of the 145% tariff imposed by the administration in Chinese imports.

The response from the White House was fast and angry. Within a few hours of the report, Amazon issued a statement walking back to the proposal, first saying it was considered only for “Amazon Haul,” a subsection dedicated to budget consumers. But in a follow-up comment later in the day, the company did not release the idea, saying the plan was “disapproved” and “not happening.”

The sequence of events has raised concerns about administration's efforts to suppress the visibility of the world of trade policies. While President Trump repeatedly describes his tariff tariff as a tool to reverse decades of economic imbalance and reduce US trade deficiency, analysts have warned that the real cost will be carried by American consumers, a fact that Amazon's feature feature is uncomfortable clearly.

In public statements, Trump set up tariffs as a patriotic lever to restore manufacturing, punish China for many years of trade violations, and “prioritize American workers.” He insisted that foreign exporters, especially China, would return the cost of these duties.

However, economists throughout the spectrum agree that tariffs work as taxes tax, which almost always passes to US retailers and ultimately consumers.

Amazon's plan, according to Punchbowl, is to put an item on the line next to the total price of each product, determining how much it costs due to the tariffs. It serves as a rare form of transparency in an online market where price increases are often unexplained. The timing was especially sensitive, as Amazon merchants had begun prices on thousands of lists in response to Trump's tariffs.

When asked about the decision at a press briefing of Tuesday, the White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt called the transfer of “a hostile and political act,” which asks why the company has not done something similar during the inflationary of the Biden Administration. He made a printing of a 2021 Reuters report claiming that Amazon had previously complied with censorship requests from China, using it as a rhetorical device to paint the company as unreliable and political motivation.

Commercial Secretary Howard Lutnick weighed online, posting that Amazon has made a “great move” by returning the course. But behind the coordinated front, the administration's reaction revealed a deeper concern: that the growing lack of consumer prices could chip in Trump's carefully cultivated image as a working class protector.

Amazon's short -lived proposal is more difficult to maintain the illusion that tariffs are an abstract penalty for foreign governments. Instead, it risks showing each product list whose policy effectively acts as a stealth tax on American consumers. The potential political blowback is clear, especially as the administration has set tariffs as part of a broader plan to survive the US industry and reduce Chinese manufacture.

According to Wedbush Securities, up to 70% of products sold on the Amazon platform came from China, which means that the impact of Trump's 145% duty is to flip almost every corner of the site. The American expectation of seeing a specific surcharge labeled “Tariff Cost” next to standard items such as phone chargers, clothing, or kitchen appliances may have turned on the president's main economic message on its head.

Meanwhile, rivals such as Temu and Shein, two rapid growing e-commerce-based e-commerce platforms, have begun to label “import charges” in checkout, in some cases adding a final price by more than 140%. Their adherence to international shipping standards puts additional pressure on Amazon, which is still determined how to adjust the pricing model amid increased import costs.

The attempt to show tariff charges reported derived from the Amazon Haul operation team, which specializes in low-cost imported goods. Inside, the company started investigating third-party sellers about how tariffs affect their pricing techniques and income margins-a sign that executives closely monitor economic disruption triggered by Trump's aggressive trade agenda.

However, Amazon's rapid return has filed a sense that Trump's administration is seeking to suppress evidence that its policies are interrupting household budgets. Consumer advocates and trading experts argue that storing such information may delay a broader counting about who will eventually pay the price for these policies.

Bezos, a frequent target of Trump's criticism, has made well -known efforts to join the White House since the Republican's 2024 success. In December, Amazon contributed $ 1 million to Trump's inaugural committee, and Bezos praised the president's “discipline” style of leadership in his second term. The Washington Post, owned by Bezos, has also reportedly narrowed its section of opinion focusing on free market values ​​and individual freedoms-another signs of detent between the two powerhouses.

However, the latest scuffle suggests that there are limits to that Truce – especially if the public visibility of the economic disease is at stake. Asked on Tuesday's promotion if Bezos remains the president's supporter, Leavitt refuses to answer directly, recalling that Amazon's brief push for transparency is “an hostile and political action.”