For all the corporate overlords’ talk about reality, no one’s more real than the former President of the United States. His top priority should be to ease the persistent frictions between these two business giants. This conversation comes at an exciting time. As Amazon prepares for its next earnings report, analysts are predicting a third quarter of low growth in the face of external pressures.
Trump and Bezos have a long and contentious history. In fact, in Trump’s own words, while Trump was president, he frequently railed against Bezos, even derisively branding him “Jeff Bozo.” That hatred came mostly because Bezos owned The Washington Post, which frequently published unflattering coverage of Trump. In a surprising turn, Trump has recently softened his tone, describing Bezos as “terrific” and acknowledging his efforts to quickly address “the Amazon problem.”
“He was terrific. He solved the problem very quickly and he did the right thing. He’s a good guy,” – President Trump
Trump’s comments come after Bezos made a concerted effort to mend their relationship, notably attending Trump’s presidential inauguration on January 20, 2025, alongside other tech leaders such as Mark Zuckerberg and Sundar Pichai. According to insiders, this latest meeting was intended to deepen Bezos’s personal ties with the former president. It helped to give him the runway to do hard things for Amazon, politically.
With a complete 145% onslaught from Trump’s tariffs on Chinese imports, Amazon is feeling the heat more and more. Too often, though, sellers will be the ones shaken the most by the tariffs’ aftereffects. Most have already raised prices and lowered advertising budgets to offset the increasing cost of imports. Analysts at UBS have noted that “consumers therefore might have to make more difficult choices on where to allocate their dollars.”
Amazon’s third quarter earnings report, expected next week, has analysts jumping out of their seats. Analysts forecast earnings per share of $1.37 and revenue of $155.04 billion, for a solid annual growth of a little over 8%. If true, that’d be the slowest rate of expansion for the company since Q2 2022’s contraction. Analysts expect Q3 to feel the worst of the tariffs’ blow. Sellers will most probably continue to exhaust their pre-tariff stock through May, amplifying the impact.
Oppenheimer analysts stated, “We are assuming Q3 is the quarter most impacted as sellers should still have pre-tariff inventory through May and therefore don’t need to raise prices yet.” This feeling reflects the overall rollercoaster moment of what Amazon’s performance will be as they head into this difficult economic storm.
Fourth, prices are increasing. Temu, Shein and other retailers specializing in fast fashion and cheap junk have all raised prices too. To prevent surprises at the doorstep, Temu has rolled out “import charges” of 130%-150% on some items. This decision only compounds the burden on consumers feeling inflationary pressure across the board.
As Amazon navigates these turbulent waters, the dialogue between Trump and Bezos may offer some hope for more amicable relations. What exactly these discussions will lead to is anyone’s guess as both face the pressure from the market and the court of public opinion.