Jeff Bezos congratulates Trump on election victory after sparking staff boycott by refusing to endorse Kamala Harris
The owner of the Washington Post and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has congratulated President-elect Donald Trump on his sweeping victory - after the billionaires decision not endorse Kamala Harris sparked a major backlash.
The owner of the Washington Post and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has congratulated President-elect Donald Trump on his sweeping victory - after the billionaires decision not endorse Kamala Harris sparked a major backlash.
Trumps political comeback was hailed as the greatest in history after the former president sealed a stunning return to the White House by defeating Kamala Harris in the 2024 US election.
Bezos, 60, had previously provoked a liberal meltdown during the election cycle when he spiked his newspapers endorsement of the Democrat presidential candidate, which spawned boycotts from employees and subscribers.
Now Bezos, who is one of the richest men in the word, has issued a public message to Trump on X.
Big congratulations to our 45th and now 47th President on an extraordinary political comeback and decisive victory. No nation has bigger opportunities, he said.
Billionaire Jeff Bezos congratulated President-elect Donald Trump on his sweeping victory
Wishing @realDonaldTrump all success in leading and uniting the America we all love, he added.
The Washington Post has publicly backed the Democrat presidential candidate for decades.
But Post CEO Will Lewis released a memo on October 25 announcing Bezos decision to axe the endorsement for the first time since 1988.
Critics speculated that Bezos was trying to curry favor with Trump and avoid retribution should the ex-president be re-elected.
Trump has surrounded himself with loyal billionaire friends during his campaign, with many of them hoping to lock in an executive branch cabinet position.
Trump sealed a stunning return to the White House by defeating Kamala Harris in the US election
Trumps cabinet during his first four-year term, which was the wealthiest in history, was hit by a series of scandals including resignations and investigations into the alleged misuse of government aircraft and pricey furniture expenditures.
The fallout from Bezos endorsement decision saw the billionaire, who is worth some $206.2 billion, publish an op-ed defending the decision, citing growing distrust of media.
What presidential endorsements actually do is create a perception of bias, he wrote on October 28.
A perception of non-independence. Ending them is a principled decision, and its the right one, he added.
However, endorsements in presidential elections by newspapers are not written by news teams but rather completely separate editorial boards which create opinion content.
By October 30, the Washington Post had reportedly lost at least 250,000 subscribers - roughly 10 percent of its digital following.
The Washington Post had reportedly lost at least 250,000 subscribers after it announced the paper would not be endorsing a presidential candidate
Critics speculated that Bezos was trying to curry favor with Trump and avoid retribution should the ex-president be reelected
Bezos published a lengthy op-ed explaining his newspapers decision not to endorse Kamala Harris for the election
Columnist Robert Kagan, a conservative Trump critic, resigned from his position on the editorial board.
The response from the Posts staff has been uniformly outraged, NPRs David Folkenflik said at the time.
The Washington Post Guild also issued a statement denouncing the move.
We are deeply concerned that The Washington Post would make the decision to no longer endorse presidential candidates, especially a mere 11 days ahead of an immensely consequential election, it read.
Bezos has also instructed editors at the Washington Post to hire more conservatives as readers cancel their subscriptions in droves, according to a source.
The New York Times reported that the outlets billionaire owner is interested in boosting its right wing readership.
