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President Trump has attacked Amazon, incorrectly claiming that it owns the Washington Post for tax purposes

Trump’s tweet comes days after he met with Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.

President Trump Hosts American Technology Council Roundtable
President Trump Hosts American Technology Council Roundtable
Chip Somodevilla / Getty

President Donald Trump attacked Amazon on Wednesday, claiming incorrectly that it owns the Washington Post in a scheme to dodge “internet taxes.”

In fact, Amazon doesn’t own the newspaper. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos bought it himself.

And while there isn’t a federal “internet tax,” as Trump contends, Amazon has worked out arrangements with states to collect sales taxes on consumers’ online purchases — all the while seeking a national solution that many Republicans long have opposed.

Trump, however, still took aim at Amazon in a tweet that sought to decry the Post’s political coverage as “fake news” — his latest in a series of attacks on both the tech company and the newspaper dating back to the 2016 presidential campaign.

For Trump and Amazon, the timing is especially awkward: Just last week, the president huddled with Bezos and other top executives to discuss ways the White House can modernize government and aid the tech industry.

Meanwhile, Amazon is about to embark on what could be a lengthy government antitrust review of its bid to buy Whole Foods. Already looming large over the roughly $14 billion deal are the president’s own comments: He has previously attacked Bezos and claimed the Post is a tax-dodging scheme for Amazon.

“He thinks I’ll go after him for antitrust,” Trump said at one point during his campaign. “Because he’s got a huge antitrust problem, because he’s controlling so much, Amazon is controlling so much of what they are doing.”

Months later, Trump charged: “Believe me, if I become president, oh, do they have problems, they are going to have such problems.”


This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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