This morning Trump continued his attack on Amazon, repeating his claims that they are ripping off the US Post Office:
Only fools, or worse, are saying that our money losing Post Office makes money with Amazon. THEY LOSE A FORTUNE, and this will be changed. Also, our fully tax paying retailers are closing stores all over the country...not a level playing field!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 2, 2018
We’ve already explained why we think Trump is wrong.
Well now, thanks to several days of these attacks, Amazon’s stock has begun to plunge:
NY POST – President Trump’s escalating war of words against Amazon is slamming the stock market.
The Dow Jones industrial average plunged 700 points on Monday as Wall Street digested headlines about trade wars with China and stepped-up regulation of the tech giants as Trump lashed out again at Amazon.
Shares of the Seattle-based retail giant plunged 5.2 percent to $1,372.84 in midday trades — bringing the stock 14 percent below its March 12 high of $1,598.39 — as Trump repeated his claims from last week that Amazon has been taking advantage of the US Postal Service.
“President Trump’s comments are consistent with industry sources we have spoken to in the shipping industry, who often label Amazon’s deal with the USPS as a sweetheart deal,” DA Davidson analyst Tom Forte wrote in a note.
“An argument, however, could be made that the USPS was losing billions before it expanded its service offerings for Amazon and would, still, likely lose billions if Amazon discontinued its use of the USPS tomorrow,” Forte said.
Look even if Trump is even remotely correct about Amazon’s deal with USPS, that’s no excuse for his attacks on them. He’s not a dictator, nor is he a king. He’s a duly elected president whose constitutional authority does not include using the federal government to bully businesses just because he doesn’t like who owns them.
If Amazon or USPS has broken the law, then the DOJ needs to investigate it and prove it in a court of law. Otherwise he needs to keep his Trumpy mouth shut.