Trump Directs Government to Punish Newspaper Owner

Jonathan Chait: “When he was running for president, Donald Trump threatened to single out Amazon for retribution. He is carrying out that threat. The White House has ordered the Defense Department to reexamine a $10 billion cloud-computing contract ‘because of concerns that the deal would go to Amazon,’ the Washington Post reports.”

“It’s not yet possible to prove that Trump is directing this decision as punishment for Jeff Bezos’s ownership of the Post. And proof may never be found. Trump’s Mafia style of management, which the Mueller report chronicles, is designed to avoid leaving a paper trail that would incriminate the boss. (The report shows Trump, among other things, using buffers to carry out his illegal orders and chiding his lawyer for taking notes.)”

“But Trump is also not smart or subtle enough to leave any doubt about his intentions. He has made it abundantly clear both that the Post is the source of his hatred of Amazon, and that his policy grounds for punishing Amazon are pretexts.”