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"This is hostile and political." --The President. No, Really. https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/29/white-house-blasts-amazon-over-tariff-cost-report-hostile-and-pol

"This is hostile and political." --The President. No, Really. https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/29/white-house-blasts-amazon-over-tariff-cost-report-hostile-and-political-act.html https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/29/white-house-blasts-amazon-ov...

neogodless 1y ago
Technically Karoline Leavitt said it.
- reverendsteveii 1y ago
  thank you for correcting me. the point still stands: it's really weird the way the government uses "political" as a pejorative when everything they do is, by definition, political. it smacks of doublethink.
  - pessimizer 1y ago
    Not if your point was that Trump Really Said It. You said one thing and it was wrong. And since it was in the second sentence of the article you linked, I assume you just read the headline.
    - reverendsteveii 1y ago
      I...just told you what my point was in the comment you're replying to?
    - bigyabai 1y ago
      It really is a direct quote from Donald Trump: White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said earlier she had discussed the initial news with Trump and his response was: “This is a hostile and political act by Amazon.” https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2025/apr/29/donald-trump-100-days-in-office-immigration-tariffs-canada-mark-carney-us-politics-live-updates?CMP=share_btn_url&page=with%3Ablock-6810ec198f08b6ffd73c18bc#block-6810ec198f08b6ffd73c18bc https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2025/apr/29/donald-...
      - neogodless 1y ago
        Thank you for correcting my correction! I didn't get that deep.
- insane_dreamer 1y ago
  She speaks on behalf of the President.
rsynnott 1y ago
Surely he should be proud of his bigly beautiful tariffs, and happy to have them prominently displayed, that a grateful public might marvel at them.
- Der_Einzige 1y ago
  And since now we have the ERS, I shouldn't have to pay my federal income taxes anymore, since Trump said he'd get rid of the IRS and abolish it!
wombat-man 1y ago
I can't tell if they still, genuinely, just don't understand how tariffs work and how they are charged. But if they're lying... why? to what end? People are going to notice when prices are jacked up or stores are empty.
- reverendsteveii 1y ago
  The point of the tariffs is rolling them back when the entity being punished does what Trump wants them to do. This was revealed in the initial stutterstep rollout of tariffs against Canada and Mexico. They both gave him political victories on the border, and in exchange the tariffs were delayed. Quit assuming he wants what he says he wants and start assuming he wants the obvious, easily-predictable consequences of his actions.
  - wombat-man 1y ago
    I guess I don't know what he's obviously trying to get out of China at the moment. It looks like what we're going to get is a product shortage stateside soon.
- mrguyorama 1y ago
  If Fox News never tells them that increasing prices are Trump's fault, they will never turn on him. People need to stop treating his supporters as rational people just missing some information. It's a classic cult of personality. They ignore reality as Trump demands. There is no way out of this by insisting that they will naturally snap out of it. That's never been how cults of personality end.
  - wombat-man 1y ago
    I'm not talking about his supporters. I mean the people in the administration.
pessimizer 1y ago
I mean, it is a manufactured story that Amazon denies. It was obviously crafted as a hostile political act by whoever made it up (or exaggerated a random remark someone made.) I don't understand your point. Am I supposed to be shocked that people could be politically hostile towards Trump? Am I supposed to be shocked that his press secretary accused Amazon of being politically hostile towards Trump? Is there a new "norm" of Presidents never accusing critics of being hostile or trying to score political points?
- reverendsteveii 1y ago
  The denial from amazon is only half an hour old as of this writing, which means it was about 6 minutes old when you posted this. and again, as I had said plainly before you even joined this thread, the thing I want to discuss is politicians using the word 'political' as a pejorative. I think it's interesting how he seems to be redefining the term and taking advantage of everyone else's distaste for it in order to make what other people do "political" (conniving, backstabbing, and all sorts of other negative connotations) whereas what he does AS THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES is not "political".
DamnInteresting 1y ago
> President Donald Trump personally called Amazon founder Jeff Bezos on Tuesday to complain about about a report that the online retail giant was considering displaying U.S. tariff costs on its product listings [...] Within hours of the call, Amazon publicly downplayed the scope of its plan — and then announced that it had been scrapped entirely. Apparently Amazon's temporary spine was made of slugs, and it just got salted.

neogodless 1y ago

Technically Karoline Leavitt said it.

reverendsteveii 1y ago
thank you for correcting me. the point still stands: it's really weird the way the government uses "political" as a pejorative when everything they do is, by definition, political. it smacks of doublethink.
- pessimizer 1y ago
  Not if your point was that Trump Really Said It. You said one thing and it was wrong. And since it was in the second sentence of the article you linked, I assume you just read the headline.
  - reverendsteveii 1y ago
    I...just told you what my point was in the comment you're replying to?
  - bigyabai 1y ago
    It really is a direct quote from Donald Trump: White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said earlier she had discussed the initial news with Trump and his response was: “This is a hostile and political act by Amazon.” https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2025/apr/29/donald-trump-100-days-in-office-immigration-tariffs-canada-mark-carney-us-politics-live-updates?CMP=share_btn_url&page=with%3Ablock-6810ec198f08b6ffd73c18bc#block-6810ec198f08b6ffd73c18bc https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2025/apr/29/donald-...
    - neogodless 1y ago
      Thank you for correcting my correction! I didn't get that deep.
insane_dreamer 1y ago
She speaks on behalf of the President.

rsynnott 1y ago

Surely he should be proud of his bigly beautiful tariffs, and happy to have them prominently displayed, that a grateful public might marvel at them.

Der_Einzige 1y ago
And since now we have the ERS, I shouldn't have to pay my federal income taxes anymore, since Trump said he'd get rid of the IRS and abolish it!

wombat-man 1y ago

I can't tell if they still, genuinely, just don't understand how tariffs work and how they are charged. But if they're lying... why? to what end? People are going to notice when prices are jacked up or stores are empty.

reverendsteveii 1y ago
The point of the tariffs is rolling them back when the entity being punished does what Trump wants them to do. This was revealed in the initial stutterstep rollout of tariffs against Canada and Mexico. They both gave him political victories on the border, and in exchange the tariffs were delayed. Quit assuming he wants what he says he wants and start assuming he wants the obvious, easily-predictable consequences of his actions.
- wombat-man 1y ago
  I guess I don't know what he's obviously trying to get out of China at the moment. It looks like what we're going to get is a product shortage stateside soon.
mrguyorama 1y ago
If Fox News never tells them that increasing prices are Trump's fault, they will never turn on him. People need to stop treating his supporters as rational people just missing some information. It's a classic cult of personality. They ignore reality as Trump demands. There is no way out of this by insisting that they will naturally snap out of it. That's never been how cults of personality end.
- wombat-man 1y ago
  I'm not talking about his supporters. I mean the people in the administration.

pessimizer 1y ago

I mean, it is a manufactured story that Amazon denies. It was obviously crafted as a hostile political act by whoever made it up (or exaggerated a random remark someone made.) I don't understand your point. Am I supposed to be shocked that people could be politically hostile towards Trump? Am I supposed to be shocked that his press secretary accused Amazon of being politically hostile towards Trump? Is there a new "norm" of Presidents never accusing critics of being hostile or trying to score political points?

reverendsteveii 1y ago
The denial from amazon is only half an hour old as of this writing, which means it was about 6 minutes old when you posted this. and again, as I had said plainly before you even joined this thread, the thing I want to discuss is politicians using the word 'political' as a pejorative. I think it's interesting how he seems to be redefining the term and taking advantage of everyone else's distaste for it in order to make what other people do "political" (conniving, backstabbing, and all sorts of other negative connotations) whereas what he does AS THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES is not "political".

DamnInteresting 1y ago

> President Donald Trump personally called Amazon founder Jeff Bezos on Tuesday to complain about about a report that the online retail giant was considering displaying U.S. tariff costs on its product listings [...] Within hours of the call, Amazon publicly downplayed the scope of its plan — and then announced that it had been scrapped entirely. Apparently Amazon's temporary spine was made of slugs, and it just got salted.