A tweet from President Trump has had a detrimental impact on the Amazon stock price. Deepening on how you measure it and when, figures vary. But we’re talking single digit billions off the market capitalisation over the course of the day. Doubtless it will recover.
Heres the tweet:
Amazon is doing great damage to tax paying retailers. Towns, cities and states throughout the U.S. are being hurt – many jobs being lost!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 16, 2017
This latest tweet from President of the United States Donald Trump is entirely in character for the n=man himself and only the latest in a bit of spat between him and Amazon CEO and Founder Jeff Bezos. It began during the presidential election campaign but has continued ever since, despite Bezos attending a summit with the new President for internet and tech business leaders. In June we reported on a recent foray: President Trump accuses Amazon of not paying “internet taxes”.
So clearly Trump believes that Amazon isn’t paying its fair share of taxes, if you compare the two recent outbursts. And he also believes that such practices are detrimental to other business and the government too. And Amazon is causing jobs to be lost. It’s by no mean clear how true any of these statements are and clearly it would be difficult to ascertain accurately.
But that Wall St. has seen a decrease in the Amazon stock price shows that to some extent they consider that Trump could take action that would detrimentally affect Amazon’s business and growth. It’s by no means clear, however, that this latest tweet is anything more than yet another provocative grandstanding tweet with the aim of causing ripples.
What is most intriguing though is that we have what looks like a rivalry between the two billionaires. Bezos is the clear winner, though, in the money stakes. By quite some margin.
3 Responses
Even trump is fed up with the tax dodgers from China and other countries using amazon fulfilment, take note mr hammond
The Donald Trump tweet is patently correct. If Amazon et al. did not exist then High Streets could well be busier and more profitable places for retailers and employees.
But Amazon et al. do exist and whether, or not, US society is then in a better place is another question entirely.
I think it’s pretty safe to say if Amazon didn’t exist someone else would fill the space. The move online is inevitable; even if someone else couldn’t do it quite as “well” as Amazon the trend is clear. From what I’ve read Trumps main beef with Bezos is that he owns a newspaper, and therefore is part of the evil media gang that is out to get him.