In This Story
Jeff Bezos says there is “no connection” between the Washington Post’s decision not to endorse a presidential candidate and his space company’s meeting with former President Donald Trump.
Bezos — who founded Amazon and Blue Origin and owns the Post — published an editorial Monday night about the Post’s decision in an effort to halt the flood of subscribers canceling their plans. As of Monday afternoon, more than 200,000 subscribers had canceled their subscriptions to the Post, accounting for about 8% of the paper’s paid circulation, NPR reports.
Besides the general controversy over a newspaper of record declining to endorse a candidate for the first time in almost four decades, subscribers and online commentators alike were angered by Bezos’ reported involvement in the decision. More than that, there was the appearance of a tit-for-tat deal, with reports noting that Blue Origin had met with the former president the day that the publication said it would not make an endorsement.
“I would also like to be clear that no quid pro quo of any kind is at work here,” Bezos wrote, adding that the decision was made entirely internally. “Neither campaign nor candidate was consulted or informed at any level or in any way about this decision.”
The third-richest man alive said that he sighed when he “found out” that Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp had met with Trump, writing that neither he nor Limp had known about the meeting ahead of time. According to Bezos, it was planned “quickly that morning.” Trump also met with Megan Mitchell, Blue Origin’s vice president of government relations, the Associated Press reported.
Blue Origin has a $3.4 billion contract to build spacecraft for astronauts to travel to and from the moon and is competing with Elon Musk’s SpaceX and the United Launch Alliance for contracts worth up to $5.6 billion across fiscal years 2025 through 2029.
During the Trump administration, Amazon (AMZN+1.31%) sued the federal government after it lost a lucrative contract known as JEDI to Microsoft (MSFT+1.26%); that $10 billion deal was later canceled by the Pentagon during the first few months of the Biden administration, which announced a new contract. Amazon had argued that Trump had launched “behind-the-scenes attacks” against it, pointing to his criticism of Bezos and the Post.
The Post’s withheld endorsement was seen as another example of tech executives and billionaires preparing for a potential second Trump administration. Meta’s (META+2.58%) Mark Zuckerberg, Apple’s Tim Cook, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, and Google (GOOGL+1.67%) CEO Sundar Pichai have all reportedly spoken with Trump in recent weeks or months.
“Every day, somewhere, some Amazon executive or Blue Origin executive or someone from the other philanthropies and companies I own or invest in is meeting with government officials,” Bezos wrote. “You can see my wealth and business interests as a bulwark against intimidation, or you can see them as a web of conflicting interests. Only my own principles can tip the balance from one to the other.”
