President Donald Trump said he wouldn’t hesitate to call any CEO who makes a business decision he doesn’t like, much like he did with Amazon founder and executive chairman Jeff Bezos.
As the president described to Meet the Press on Sunday, he called Bezos to complain following a report that Amazon was preparing to break out the price of tariffs for products listed on its website. Because of the phone call, Trump implied, Amazon changed course.
“He’s just a very nice guy. We have a relationship. I asked him about it,” Trump said of the speculation that Amazon would break out tariff charges. “He said, ‘Well, I don’t want to do that,’ and he took it off immediately.”
Shortly after Punchbowl News reported on the supposed plan, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt called it a “hostile and political act.” Yet, Amazon denied the report to Fortune, saying the idea of breaking out tariff charges was “never a consideration for the main Amazon site.”
In the interview Sunday, Trump said that he would call other CEOs if he didn’t agree with their decisions.
“I’ll always call people if I disagree with them,” he said. “If I think that somebody is doing something that’s incorrect, wrong, or maybe hurtful to the country, I’ll call. Wouldn’t you want me to call?”
Trump’s comments come as companies scramble to adapt to the 145% tariff the administration has placed on imported Chinese products. Some Chinese online retailers such as Temu and Shein have already increased prices due to tariffs and U.S. companies such as Stanley Black & Decker have also either raised their prices or warned of increases to come.
Trump has previously warned car companies not to raise prices in response to tariffs, especially on domestic cars, and said the White House would look unfavorably on such a response.
Both the U.S. and China have stepped up their rhetoric in recent weeks as the trade war between the world’s two biggest economies drags on. Trump in the Sunday interview said he will not drop tariffs on China to bring it to the negotiating table.
Apart from the China tariffs, the administration has also imposed a 10% baseline tariff on all countries. Despite evidence that U.S. consumers will pay for tariffs with price increases, Trump denied Sunday that tariffs amount to a tax.
“What people don’t understand is, and this is a lot, the country eats the tariff. The company eats the tariff. And it’s not passed along at all,” he said.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
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