White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt slammed Amazon for being a “China-aligned company” after a report indicated that the e-retailer planned to place a tariff surcharge label on products — a move she called a “hostile, political act.”
“This is a hostile and political act by Amazon,” Leavitt said at a Tuesday press conference at the White House, according to Fox News. “Why didn’t Amazon do this when the Biden administration hiked inflation to the highest level in 40 years?”
The label, which informs customers of additional charges due to new US tariffs on Chinese imports, has sparked controversy amid escalating trade tensions with Beijing.
News of the planned label was first reported by Punchbowl News.
Leavitt’s remarks come in the wake of President Donald Trump’s April 2 announcement of significant tariffs on goods from China, a move aimed at addressing long-standing trade imbalances.
In response, Amazon sellers have increased prices on numerous popular items, including home appliances, electronics, and clothing.
Nearly 1,000 products sold on Amazon have seen price increases since mid-April, as US tariffs on Chinese imports ripple through the retail sector.
According to SmartScout, a price analysis software firm, the average price jump across those items is close to 30%.
The increases span a broad range of consumer goods — from phone chargers to women’s apparel — with brands like Anker, a leading seller of mobile charging accessories, raising prices on roughly a quarter of its Amazon-listed products.
“It’s one of the first concerted efforts I’ve seen where nothing explains the price hikes other than tariffs,” said SmartScout CEO Scott Needham told CBS MoneyWatch.
The dust-up with Amazon comes just days after Trump praised company founder and former foe Jeff Bezos, saying that the billionaire mogul has been “great.”
In an interview with The Atlantic, Trump described the transformation of once-adversarial relationships with Bezos and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg into partnerships grounded in mutual “respect.”
The president credited Bezos and Zuckerberg for adjusting their companies’ policies in ways that align with his administration’s values.
“They’ve been great,” Trump said of the tech moguls.
“It’s just a higher level of respect. I don’t know. Maybe they didn’t know me at the beginning, and they know me now.”
Bezos, the Amazon founder and owner of The Washington Post, made headlines just before the election when he blocked his newspaper’s editorial board from publishing a prepared endorsement of Trump’s opponent, then-Vice President Kamala Harris.
Bezos has also implemented an overhaul of the Washington Post’s opinion page which has seen an exodus of left-leaning commentators after the mogul stated his preference for touting “personal liberties and free markets.”
Just hours after the change was announced, Bezos joined Trump for a private dinner, signaling a sharp departure from the tensions that defined their relationship during Trump’s first term.
