Together they are locked in a personal feud that is shaving billions off the value of U.S. tech stocks. But is Donald Trump’s onslaught against Amazon chief Jeff Bezos really about the president’s concern that the United States Postal Service (USPS) is getting a raw deal for delivering Amazon parcels?

Or is the source of his extreme irritation actually the Washington Post, the rejuvenated Bezos-owned title which has held the president and his administration to account under a portentous masthead line which reads “Democracy dies in darkness”?

For much of last week, Trump has been raging against his new favorite target, Amazon — accusing the company of putting “fully tax paying retailers” out of business, and using the USPS as its “Delivery Boy” at the expense of American taxpayers.

He has also chided “The Fake News Washington Post,” Amazon’s “chief lobbyist,” railing against what he sees as its many “phony headlines” and bad reporting.

His Twitter rants continued in person as he addressed reporters on Air Force One, telling them: “Amazon is just not on an even playing field. They have a tremendous lobbying effort, in addition to having the Washington Post … What they have is a very uneven playing field.”

Read full article