Duties, the case of Amazon breaks out. The White House: hostile and political act. Then the clarification with Bezos

Duties, political accusations, alarm companies: Trump’s America, On his hundredth day of mandateenters a high voltage phase. And at the center of the storm is Amazon. The White House publicly accused Jeff Bezos group of a « hostile and political act»For hypothesized to report on its platform the increase in prices caused by duties. After a phone call between Trump and Bezosthe clarification of the e-commerce giant: « Never approved or envisaged such a measure ».

It all started after Punchbowl News reported Amazon’s intention to report the direct impact of the Trump rates on the price of each product. The response of the White House was not long in coming: winging the photo of Bezos, Leavitt accused Amazon of « a hostile act » in front of the press and cameras, while next to her the secretary of the treasure, Scott Beesent, remained motionless. And asked provocatively Because he had not adopted such transparency « when inflation with the Biden administration had exploded at the highest level in 40 years ».

Amazon then clarified that the hypothesis only concerned his low -cost platform haul, Created last November to compete with the Chinese Temu and Shein: selling products from China at bargain prices, the duties by 145% imposed by Trump would have enormously increased prices. But the discussion never involved the main site, the Seattle company specified. That he would have done pressure on Chinese suppliers to contain final prices.

Despite the clarification, which allowed the Amazon stock to recover on the stock exchange, closing at .0.42% after an initial -2%, the tension remains high. Jeff Bezos recently managed to get closer to Trump, Which in the past had defined a « threat to democracy ». First with the indication to Washington Post, the newspaper of which he is the publisher, of Do not support the democratic Kamala Harris running against Trump at the presidential elections last November; Then with the contribution of one million dollars donated to the fund for the organization of the inauguration Presidential, to whom Bezos attended in the front row, together with all the other protagonists of Big Tech – from Mark Zuckerberg (Meta) to Sundar Pichai (Google), from Tim Cook (Apple) to Elon Musk (Tesla and Spacex) – accompanied by his boyfriend Lauren Sanchez, who will marry in June in Venice. Other conciliatory gestures include the purchase of 40 million from Amazon of a documentary on the First Lady Melania and the decision to transmit episodes of the Trump reality show « The Apprentice » on First videos.

But there is a strange coincidence: the Amazon case, with the hard accusations of the White House, has exploded While Bezos is preparing to compete with Elon Musk’s Spacex and Starlink with the Kuiper projectyesterday at the debut with the launch of the first 27 low -orbit satellites. Just a randomness? In a context in which the boundaries between economy, geopolitics and strategic interests become increasingly lacble, even a simple case stops being neutral and becomes part of the conflict.

The line of « strategic uncertainty », claimed by the White House as a negotiating leverage to rewrite the rules of international trade, risks transforming into a boomerang. The trust of American consumers is Herod: in April it has fallen to the minimum for 5 years. The companies postpone investments and decisions: GM, for example, has suspended a buyback and withdrawn the guidance on this year’s trend for too much uncertainty, as many other groups have done, while UPS will cut 20 thousand jobs. The US commercial deficit expands instead of reducing itself, climbing to 162 billion dollars in MarzOr compared to the 92.8 billion of a year ago, for the race to grab goods before the so -called « liberation day » of April 2, with the entry into force of the customs overflows, then reduced to 10% for 90 days (excluding China).

Thus, to avoid the freezing of hiring and development plans in a crucial sector such as the automotive sector, the US administration was forced to make another gear back on the duties yesterday, introducing exemptions for automotive. The duties on spare parts, for example, will be partially reimbursable up to 15% of the value of vehicles assembled in the USA, announced the secretary of the Howard Lutnick trade.

It is the (partial) chronicle of A bitter anniversary for the Trump presidency: 100 days marked by growing concerns and an increasingly uncertain future. Inside and outside the United States.