Donald Trump is calling out Amazon and its leader.
Last week, when being interviewed by Fox News, the presidential candidate had some harsh words about the eCommerce giant, claiming that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is helping the company to get away with paying too little taxes, Fortune reported.
“Amazon is getting away with murder, tax-wise. [Bezos is] using The Washington Post for power so that the politicians in Washington don’t tax Amazon like they should be taxed,” Trump said.
According to Fortune, the accusations come as Trump himself is feeling pressure to make his own tax statements public. His comments are also believed to be in response to reports that The Washington Post has a team of 20 reporters working to investigate every aspect of the real estate mogul’s life.
Trump likened Amazon to a “monopoly,” adding that “the whole system’s rigged.”
“[Bezos has] got a huge antitrust problem because he’s controlling so much. Amazon is controlling so much of what they’re doing,” Trump said.
But this isn’t the first time Trump made it clear he has a bone to pick with Bezos.
Back in February, he complained about Washington Post‘s coverage of the campaign, saying: “When they write purposely negative and horrible and false articles, we can sue them and win lots of money.”
In the same speech, Trump explained the basis of his objection to the media outlet and its owner:
“I have respect for Jeff Bezos, but he bought The Washington Post to have political influence. And I gotta tell you, we have a different country than we used to have. He wants political influence so that Amazon will benefit from it. That’s not right. And believe me, if I become president, oh, do they have problems. They’re going to have such problems.”
Last year, Trump tweeted that Bezos’ purchase of The Washington Post was a means to use the struggling paper to shave dollars from Amazon’s tax bill. An interesting theory but wrong, as Amazon is owned by Bezos’ personal investment firm, a totally separate entity from Amazon. At the time, Bezos offered Trump a free ride into space, care of Blue Origin.