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Might As Well Have Set That Money On Fire
Bezos and the other minor donors are worse off for giving money to Trump.
mister mix
April 30, 2025
I’m sure everyone’s seen Amazon’s almost comical backdown, but if you missed it, here’s the tik-tok:
Punchbowl News, a new-ish DC publication which has an excellent record of political scoops but hasn’t done much tech reporting, published a single-sourced rumor that Amazon would soon begin showing tariffs next to prices.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was asked about this at a White House briefing.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stepped in to say that she had just discussed this story with President Trump. “This is a hostile and political act by Amazon,” she said.
Amazon caved almost immediately. “The team that runs our ultra low cost Amazon Haul store considered the idea of listing import charges on certain products. This was never approved and is not going to happen,” the company’s Tim Doyle told us.
Patel is generally an OK tech reporter (OK is about as good as it gets in that space). In his piece, he asks the question “Is Jeff Bezos a coward?” and posits that Bezos needs to stand up to Trump or he’ll be judged a coward.
I have a different perspective: Bezos is a fool, because he gave money to Trump and attended the inaugural in the hopes that his money and presence would get him something. As we’ve seen over and over again with Trump, giving him any sort of concession leads to demands for more concessions, because he judges you as weak and a target for exploitation.
Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google, also attended the inauguration, and here’s his reward:
Today the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice prevailed in its second monopolization case against Google. In United States et al. v. Google, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia held that Google violated antitrust law by monopolizing open-web digital advertising markets. According to the Court, Google “harmed Google’s publishing customers, the competitive process, and, ultimately, consumers of information on the open web.”
If Pichai had given Trump real money with a real benefit - like Musk - that antitrust case would have been dropped. But a paltry million or two with no support prior to the election just got him an opportunity to beg Trump to let his company off the hook. And that’s going to lead to an almost endless cycle of negotiations and concessions with Trump, because once Trump gets you on the hook, you never get off. A recent example is the way that Trump played with a couple of Atlantic reporters who wanted to talk with him.
As soon as you give something to Trump, or let him know you want something, he immediately attempts to find a way to fuck you over. He only respects those who push back.
(I’m going to be traveling today, so posting from me will resume tomorrow at the earliest, dios mediante.)
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