Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has recently openly criticized Donald Trump, and his media outlet The Washington Post has been one of the most active opponents of the current US president. However, the situation has changed dramatically over the past year. The multibillionaire financially supports events related to Trump, and The Washington Post's editorial policy has undergone serious transformations. What made one of the richest people in the world reconsider his positions? Forbes retells the main points from the Financial Times article
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The conflict between multibillionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and the 47th President of the United States, Donald Trump, began during the latter's first term in office. One of the key points of tension was the Pentagon's $10 billion cloud computing contract (JEDI), which ended up going to Microsoft instead of Amazon.
Amazon filed a lawsuit directly accusing Trump of interfering in the bidding process because of his then-dislike of The Washington Post, which Bezos owns. The entrepreneur believed that Trump personally interfered in the bidding process to punish him for critical editorial policies of The Washington Post.
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“There was a joke that buying The Washington Post cost Bezos $10 billion, not $250 million,” former editor-in-chief Marty Baron told the FT. After the Pentagon’s decision, Bezos appeared “deeply shocked” and repeated, “This is unfair,” an acquaintance of the billionaire told the FT.
But a second Trump term could pose even greater financial risks for Bezos. The business interests of Amazon and the aerospace company Blue Origin, which Bezos also owns, depend on tens of billions of dollars in federal contracts in the areas of national security and space, as well as on the US administration's tax and customs policies.
Betting on Blue Origin and competing with Musk
Blue Origin is one of Bezos’s main projects aimed at commercializing space. In January 2024, the company successfully launched a heavy rocket and also received a $3.4 billion NASA contract for a mission to land humans on the moon in 2029. However, it is still far behind Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which has already carried out more than 450 orbital launches. Musk, known for his closeness to Trump, has openly accused Bezos of interfering in the market.
“It’s important to Bezos that Blue Origin gets contracts from the U.S. government,” says one of Bezos’s advisers. “If the world’s richest man and the world’s most powerful politician unite against Bezos, his space ambitions could be destroyed.”
Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral in January 2025. Photo: Getty Images
Changing course The Washington Post
Jeff Bezos bought The Washington Post in 2013 for $250 million, when the publication was in financial trouble. His ownership initially brought the paper a renaissance: growing subscribers, an expanded political department, and a new slogan that Bezos himself coined: Democracy Dies in Darkness. During Trump’s presidency, the media mogul has supported the editorial team, remaining a strategic owner and minimizing interference.
However, after Trump's first term, WP began to lose ground, and financial losses increased to $100 million per year. Bezos began to interfere more actively in editorial policy, which caused a crisis within the newspaper. In particular, he blocked editorial support for Trump's opponent, Kamala Harris, and Blue Origin began to establish contacts with the current US president. As a result, dozens of journalists left WP, including Ruth Marcus, whose column was not published by the new management.
Journalists have protested the publication's new course, but the media mogul has ignored their appeals. “He's steering the organization in a certain direction without explaining why,” says former editor-in-chief Marty Baron.
The editorial course of the WP has now shifted toward “personal freedoms and the free market” at the behest of Bezos himself. This has caused outrage among the journalists in the editorial office. Pulitzer Prize-winning writer David Maraniss has said that he will never write for the newspaper again as long as Bezos remains its owner. “I wish they would change the name of the paper, because it’s not The Washington Post anymore,” Maraniss says.
In turn, Trump praised the changes at the publication: “I met him [Jeff Bezos] and I think he's trying to do something serious with The Washington Post. It didn't have that before.”
Jeff Bezos with Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai at the inauguration of US President Donald Trump, January 20, 2025. Photo by Getty Images
Amazon Monopolist
Amazon and Blue Origin now have more than $20 billion in U.S. government contracts, including a lunar mission program and a $10 billion contract with the National Security Agency. Amazon also paid $40 million for a documentary series about Melania Trump — nearly three times more than rival Disney offered. About $28 million of that amount will go directly into the first lady’s pocket.
Bezos stayed largely out of politics during his first two decades at Amazon. But now he’s increasingly immersed in the political game. On inauguration day, Bezos stood among other tech moguls watching Trump take the oath of office. The event itself was supported by a $1 million donation from Amazon and streamed live on Prime Video.
However, Amazon still has problems with the government. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has filed an antitrust lawsuit against the company, and its consideration is scheduled to begin in 2026. So Bezos' change of course is another reason to show loyalty to the current government.
Mark Zuckerberg, Lauren Sanchez, Jeff Bezos, Sundar Pichai and Elon Musk during the inauguration of Donald Trump as the 47th President of the United States, Capitol Hill, January 20, 2025 in Washington, D.C. Photo by Getty Images
Survival game
“Why has Bezos changed? It’s a combination of pragmatism, fear and a bit of opportunism,” says one of the multibillionaire’s acquaintances. For him, the key issue is the survival of his empire. He has not necessarily become a Trump supporter, but he is trying to reduce potential threats to his business, writes the FT. His acquaintances note that the deal for a documentary about Melania Trump is not so much a gesture of support as a cold-blooded calculation.
“He’s paying money to buy the favor of the Trump family and to appease the president. From a cost-benefit perspective, it’s not that big of a price. It’s a smart investment,” says one of the Amazon founder’s associates.
Despite the transformation, people around Bezos don't believe he has truly switched sides with the new US president. “This is not the Bezos I know,” says one of his former executives. “He may not be 100% pro-Trump, but he's not a fool. It's a matter of survival.”
The media mogul has chosen the path of pragmatism and financial guarantees for his business empire. His strategy is not to support Trump, but to minimize the risks when the latter returns to the White House, the FT concludes.
