Jeff Bezos showered Donald Trump with praise on Wednesday, stirring controversy ahead of the 2024 election by blocking The Washington Post, which he owns, from endorsing Kamala Harris.
“I’m proud of the decision we made, and it was far from cowardly, because we knew there would be blowback, and we did the right thing anyway,” he said at The New York Times‘ DealBook conference in New York while in conversation with Andrew Ross Sorkin.
Bezos expressed being “very optimistic this time around” about Trump’s proposed plan to cut regulations across the U.S. economy, noting that he believes Trump has “grown” since 2016.
“I am very optimistic that President Trump is serious about this regulatory agenda. And I think he has a good chance of succeeding,” he said. “If I can help him do that, I’m going to help him, because we do have too much regulation in this country. This country is so set up to grow.”
When Sorkin pointed out that Trump seems to have a strong dislike for the press, particularly the paper he owns, Bezos responded, “I’m going to try to talk him out of that idea. I don’t think the press is the enemy. You know, you’ve probably grown in the last eight years,” he said to Sorkin. “He has too.”
Bezos also took a positive stance toward Elon Musk, his longtime rival in the billionaire space race, saying, “I take at face value what has been said [by Musk], that he is not going to use his political power to advantage his own companies or to disadvantage his competitors.
“I could be wrong about that, but I think it could be true.” The founder of one of the world’s most powerful and famously relentless companies added improbably: “I’ve had a lot of success in life not being cynical, and I’ve very rarely been taken advantage of as a result.”
Earlier in the day at DealBook, the premier gathering of America’s elite, Sam Altman of OpenAI shared a similar optimism about Musk. The event also featured figures like Ken Griffin, Bill Clinton, Jay Powell, Alex Cooper, and Sundar Pichai, before Bezos’ closing session.
Bezos faced significant backlash for his decision not to endorse presidential candidates, particularly from the paper’s journalists and former editor Marty Baron, with whom he worked closely for nearly a decade after purchasing The Washington Post in 2013.
The Post‘s often-absent owner reaffirmed his conviction about the decision – one that led to a loss of more than 10 percent of its subscriber base – with a Freudian slip, “You can’t do the wrong thing because you’re worried about bad PR… this was the right decision.”
Dressed in dark suede loafers and a thin black sweater, Bezos quickly addressed his staff’s concerns, calling himself The Post‘s “doting parent.”
“I’m a terrible owner of The Post from the point of view of appearance of conflict,” he said, referring to rumors that he curtailed The Post in order to advantage Amazon and Blue Origin, his space company – both of which compete for government contracts.
But, he added, “the advantage I bring to The Post is [that] when they need financial resources, I’m available. I’m the doting parent,” he said to the amusement of the audience at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York.
He promised to rescue The Post “for a second time,” explaining that the paper had been profitable for six or seven years during the late 2010s until the “Trump Bump” from his first election faded, leading to mounting losses.
In defense of his decision, he cited declining trust in the media as reflected in various surveys. “The media has been going down in those surveys for decades. The small positive is that they were always above Congress. This year they lost even that, falling below Congress, which is not easy to achieve. Congress was thrilled, by the way,” Bezos said.
Bezos soon shifted to other topics – space, AI, and the structure of his daily routine. As he did, the contrast between his current interests and The Post‘s traditional focus became even more apparent.
He reflected on the inevitability of being misunderstood as a public figure and described his time as the world’s richest man (a title he once held) more as a burden than an achievement.
Bezos mentioned two lists on which he would like to rank highly: the world’s top inventors and those who have created the most value for others over time. Having made around $200 billion from Amazon, he noted that this equates to $2.1 trillion in value created for others (with Amazon valued at $2.3 trillion).
Looking ahead, he sees even greater value. “I think it’s going to be the best business I’ve ever been involved in,” he said about Blue Origin, telling a surprised Sorkin that he believes the company – despite being outpaced by Musk’s SpaceX for two decades – will one day surpass Amazon.
Source
- Jeff Bezos Praises Trump and Musk But Shades His Own WaPo Staff – The Daily Beast