Axios: Trump is more interested in going after Amazon instead of Facebook - Polidicks

https://www.axios.com/trump-regulation-amazon-facebook-646c642c-a2d7-454b-a9a9-cdc6e4eaef2c.html Basically Trump is more interested in Amazon because it's killing the real estate business, in his mind is getting a cushy treatment from the USPS, and sees Jeff Bezos using his stake in the Washington Post as a personal battleground. Mike Pence is concerned with Google and Facebook, with their media coverage influence, control on the advertising industry and access to user's personal information.

So I guess we can soon enough expect an exclusive coverage of Amazon on Foxnews and right afterwards Trump tweeting about how bad they are and how they need to be brought down a peg or whatever. Great.

Using his presidency to attack a business which he believes is harming his own, nope no conflicts of interest here.

Because I'm a Brit, I am not as familiar with some of the minutiae of American law, although I know more than most of my fellow countrymen. So I ask, does this in any way infringe on the emoluments clause? I think that's more to do with spending money in a disingenuous way, but I am just wondering if this is something he could be penalised for?

It appears he doesnt give rats ass about laws and ethics. I bet if he opened a company that makes fighter jets out of cardboard and US Gov. held tender for new fighter jet manufacturer - His cardboard jets would with by a landslide.

I mean, it took me a second to realize that he's clearly doing it for personal, petty gain but I'm okay with it, in general. That said, I'm not okay with Trump doing it, because I don't want it to become a habit for him.

Wait, you're ok with it, but not ok with it?

Reading the article, it says that it's hurting his friend's business, not Trump's himself. The only personal attachment it seems is that the founder of Amazon owns the Washington Post, which is a very critical newspaper of Trump.

Amazon should be gone after, but for the right reasons. E.g., reasons that wouldnt inspire him to go after other companies that are an inconvenience.

What are the right reasons?

They're far from a monopoly, but they are devouring quite a large market share. It's more like the market is going towards a duopoly between Amazon and Walmart tbh, Walmart is still a gigantic beast. Also, fucking with USPS isn't the way to deal with this lol. That just harms the online retail market as a whole. If you want to deal with their market share, you break them up. If you want to deal with them treating employees badly, then pass laws that prevent that - so not only do you stop them, you prevent future corporations from doing the same. By going after USPS rates, you are not only probably hurting other smaller businesses more, you also aren't helping those employees at all either. They'll have to cut costs - and likely make their jobs worse as a response.

I can't believe there's something I actually agree with Pence on. Gross.

For a minute there you sounded like the guy who said "Damn it all, we finally have a president that bangs porn stars and wants a space army and I STILL hate him".

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-amazon-com-stocks/amazon-sheds-52-billion-in-market-value-after-report-on-trump-threat-idUSKBN1H42HG

Usually when a head of state causes things like this there's uproar, people on all sides telling them to either knock it off or get the fuck out as they're fucking with the economy in unregulated ways. But for some unknowable reason Trump has been allowed to get away with this several times now.

Trump better not do anything to jeopardize my job in some way. I can't afford to look for new work.

The magic 'R'

I admit Amazon is a bit big for it's testicles and needs knocked down some notches, but I'd be lying if I said this was for anything but personal gain. What he needs to be doing is making Amazon pay it's people more, instead of drawing more money from them for his own needs; which of coarse isn't going to happen.

I don't know about Amazon, but Facebook did nothing illegal. It's not their fault that people are too stupid/lazy/dumb to read the EULA or understand that if they're not paying for a service, that they are actually the product.

So how about that FTC consent order?

How is Amazon hurting real estate?

Y'know, considering there was another thread discussing how a company was attempting to cause AMD's stocks to tank so they could buy cheap and make bank when they recover, this seems fishy that he keeps saying stupid shit without actually doing anything, which causes the markets to shake a bit. Almost as if he's the type of self-centered, self-important asshole who will do anything for a buck and some press. ...Nah, surely he's not that smart...

Thanks to another WH insider we now know that this is the truth on how the President feels. https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/979326715272065024 Amazon is now down another 3% as of this post.

I'm going to ask what I believe most people here are thinking: what the hell does Amazon have to do with selling houses?

Real estate goes beyond houses and apartments, it extends to things like shopping/strip malls, which Amazon directly competes with.

they're crushing malls and small stores, and no one is buying the empty malls/stores, so its leaving a lot of huge worthless building lying around, which is hurting the property value around them

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2018/03/29/why-trumps-rage-at-amazon-will-remain-impotent/ This is an opinion piece, but it spells out what's wrong with Trump's attack on Amazon: Amazon does collect sales tax on behalf of states; it didn't used to, but within the last six years that's completely changed Amazon's one of USPS' best customers but Trump acts like they get free shipping service or something Trump's actually mad at Jeff Bezos who owns the Washington Post which has been very aggressive in holding him accountable journalistically, but attacking the free press is bad optics (he's already been down that road) so he's going for a proxy fight Amazon's windfall in the tax cut last year helped cut their effective corporate tax rate to 0 so thanks papa Trump The writer then goes on to explain how Amazon probably won't be seriously hurt by this: But targeting a corporation would take some time and planning. How would you go about it? In Amazon’s case you could pursue some kind of antitrust case, but then you’d have to involve the Justice Department, which oversees such actions. I’m 99.99 percent sure that if you asked Trump who his assistant attorney general for antitrust is, he wouldn’t be able to tell you. The bureaucracy of this administration constitutes a kind of conservative deep state (kidding, sort of) whose cooperation would be necessary to implement such an initiative, and it would involve quite a few people and take a long time to carry out. That bureaucracy is extremely skeptical of anything that restricts the prerogatives of big corporations, and since undermining Amazon doesn’t serve any identifiable conservative goal, there would likely be strong pushback. And there was one opportunity to get in Amazon’s way, when it purchased Whole Foods last year. The Federal Trade Commission approved the deal quickly and with no fuss. This suggests that even for a president as full of corrupt intent as this one, it may be easier to reward your friends — a contract here, an appointment for a buddy there — than it is to punish your enemies, at least in cases where punishing those enemies doesn’t serve the ideological agenda of everyone you’ve had to hire in order to fill out your administration. In short, every time Trump attacks Amazon because he's mad about the Washington Post, he further reinforces that he's a petty baby who'd gladly rip up the First Amendment and turn the USA into a fascist dictatorship just so people couldn't hurt his billionaire gold-plated snowflake feelings.

Can we talk about how fucked up it is that the Baby in Chief can talk shit about something and instantly drop its value?

3% is largely inconsequential, it will be back to normal in a week if not less.

This happens with a lot of things. Bad press from somewhere significant (Trump is the President), and value takes a hit.