The White House said Tuesday Amazon's plans to list tariff costs are "hostile" and "political." Speaking at a briefing alongside Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, "Amazon has partnered with a Chinese propaganda arm," Leavitt said.
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00:00Good morning, everybody.
00:13Hi, Mr. Secretary.
00:15So it was reported this morning that Amazon will soon display a little number next to the
00:20price of each product that shows how much the Trump tariffs are adding to the cost of
00:25each product.
00:27So isn't that a perfect crystal clear demonstration that it's the American consumer and not China
00:33who is going to have to pay for these policies?
00:35I will take this since I just got off the phone with the President about Amazon's announcement.
00:41This is a hostile and political act by Amazon.
00:46Why didn't Amazon do this when the Biden administration hiked inflation to the highest level in 40 years?
00:52And I would also add that it's not a surprise because, as Reuters recently wrote, Amazon
00:58has partnered with a Chinese propaganda arm.
01:01So this is another reason why Americans should buy American.
01:05It's another reason why we are on-shoring critical supply chains here at home to shore up our
01:10own critical supply chain and boost our own manufacturing here.
01:13Is Jeff Bezos still a Trump supporter?
01:15Look, I will not speak to the President's relationships with Jeff Bezos, but I will tell you that this
01:23is certainly a hostile and political action by Amazon.
01:25And, Secretary, if you have anything to add?
01:27Yeah.
01:28I would also add that bringing down the terrible Biden inflation has been a priority for the
01:35first 100 days of the Trump administration.
01:38And President Trump has done a great job of leading that since January 20th.
01:44Interest rates, mortgage rates are down, gasoline and energy prices are down.
01:49We're expecting the further decreases.
01:52You've talked about the importance of giving investors certainty when it comes to the market,
01:57yet the Trump administration is continuing to negotiate several complex trade deals in
02:03a very sort of compressed time frame.
02:05When do you expect you'll be able to give the markets uncertainty?
02:09Good question.
02:10And I think one thing that has been a little disconcerting for the markets is, you know,
02:16President Trump creates what I would call strategic uncertainty in the negotiations.
02:21So he is more concerned about getting the best possible trade deals for the American people.
02:27You know, we had four years of bad deals for decades of unfair trading, and we are going
02:34to unwind those and make them fair.
02:39What we are doing is we've created a process.
02:41I think the aperture of uncertainty will be narrowing.
02:45And as we start moving forward announcing deals, then there will be certainty.
02:52But, you know, certainty is not necessarily a good thing in negotiating.
02:56What are American manufacturers not understanding about your push for onshoring in the U.S.?
03:02Well, I think I was in the investment business 35 years, and I learned to ignore the survey
03:07data and look, or the surveys, look at the actual data, and the actual data has been quite
03:13good.
03:14The job data is good, Americans keep spending, and as Caroline said, we have these incredible
03:19commitments to bring manufacturing back on shore with record investment by domestic corporations
03:27and foreigners who want to come into the U.S.
03:30What is your message to the American people in terms of letting them get through this disturbance
03:37and the outcome being greater and a greater good for the American worker, the American
03:41people, the American families?
03:43I would say trust in President Trump.
03:46There is a reason he was reelected to this office.
03:49It's because of the historic success of his economic formula in the first term.
03:53And as I laid out at the beginning of the briefing, and the secretary has talked about, and the
03:56president talks about every day, there's a proven formula that works.
04:01President Trump wants to restore the golden age, and it's a process.