President Trump is entering his sixth day in a row without any appearances in public, but he took some time out of his morning Thursday to sound off about his "concerns with Amazon." Central to the president's ire (aside from the fact that Amazon is owned by Jeff Bezos, who also owns the "failing" Washington Post) is that Amazon uses "our Postal System as their Delivery Boy (causing tremendous loss to the U.S.)." As Axios reported Thursday, this is not actually true.
"It's been explained to [Trump] in multiple meetings that his perception is inaccurate and that the post office actually makes a ton of money from Amazon," one person in the know said.
Last year, Trump aired a similar complaint on Twitter: "Why is the United States Post Office, which is losing many billions of dollars a year, while charging Amazon and others so little to deliver their packages, making Amazon richer and the Post Office dumber and poorer?" he wondered. Vox dug into the question and found that while the USPS is "bleeding money," its parcel service is actually one arm that is "doing okay."
(Atlas)
While the Post Office likely does cut deals with Amazon, Vox adds in conclusion that "Amazon doesn't need the USPS. The same isn't necessarily true for the USPS." Quartz's own analysis found "Amazon and the broader e-commerce sector aren't what's ailing the USPS. They just might be keeping it afloat." Axios notes that some post offices in America have even added Sunday delivery because "Amazon made it worthwhile."