Amazon to List Tariff Contribution to Price of Individual Products. White House Calls this a 'Hostile and Political Act

by Rod Williams, April 29, 2029- Just yesterday, I was thinking that retailers should push back against the tariffs by itemizing on receipts something like, "portion of bill due to tariffs." I was thinking it should be at Kroger's, at Walmart, at bars and restaurants. I would hope every retailer would do it and it would become the norm. 

One limitation of such a program is that domestically produced products also increase in price due to the impact of tariffs and that is more difficult to calculate and is in flux, but showing the direct cost of tariffs to the consumer for imported products should not be that difficult to show. It could not only be on the receipt but a statement on the package could say something like, "$1.09 of the retail price of this product is due to tariffs."  When ordering online, the statement could be shown on the screen when viewing the product.

I opened my computer this morning and one of the first things I saw was this: Amazon listing tariff prices is a 'hostile and political act,' White House says.  YES! 

Here is more from the news account:

The White House on Tuesday slammed Amazon's reported plans to list the costs of President Donald Trump's tariffs next to the total prices of products, signaling an emerging clash between the online retailer's founder, Jeff Bezos, and Trump.

"I just got off the phone with the president about the Amazon announcement. This is a hostile and political act by Amazon," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at an April 29 briefing with reporters.

The article goes on to report of Trump's whine that, Amazon didn't do this due to Biden's inflation and that Amazon is in bed with a Chinees propaganda arm.  

This is significant, I think. You may recall that Jeff Bezos founder, executive chairman, and former president and CEO of Amazon cozied up to Trump during the campaign. Bezos also owns The Washington Post, the legendary, legacy, liberal newspaper. Under normal circumstances the WP would have endorsed the Democrat candidate even if a normal Republican was the nominee; with Trump the nominee there is no doubt that had the editorial board been allowed to operate independently, they would have endorsed Kamala Harris. Bezos kept that from happening.

Everyone who knows anything about economics and who is not somehow blinded by the allure of Trump, knows tariffs and a trade war is a really terrible idea. Some Trump supporters are simply ignorant of economics and have faith in Trump; others who know better are either intimidated or have something to gain from going along with whatever Trump wants. It looks like Jeff Bezos is not going to pretend anymore that Trump tariff policies are cost-free.

I hope Amazon follows through and I hope everyone else follows suit. For Amazon to take this step is a bold move. The Trump administration has shown they will intimidate and selectively use the power of government to coerce their critics to bend to their will. In many ways the Trump administration resembles a mafia crime family and is the way governments operate in many nations without a democratic tradition and the rule of law. The Trump administration could threaten to declare Amazon a monopoly and break it up. There are labor laws and various other regulatory levers of power the administration could use to break Amazon's will to follow through. 

While Trump could intimidate Amazon to fold, I sense that we are at a turning point where we are going to see meaningful pushback against Trump.  Harvard did not fold. Maybe Amazon won't fold.  I think we are about to see someone say, "the emperor has not clothes." We might be starting to see, the Trump house of cards collapse. 

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