World War Fee On Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt denounced Amazon after it was reported the tech giant intended to show how much President Trump’s import tariffs would inflate the price of stuff sold through its internet souk.

“This is a hostile and political act by Amazon,” Leavitt said, noting she had just spoken to President Trump about the e-tailer’s alleged plans.

In the end, it seems as if the original report, that Amazon was going to clearly display tariff costs for online shoppers, was overstating the issue anyway – at least if you believe Amazon.

“The team that runs our ultra low cost Amazon Haul store considered the idea of listing import charges on certain products,” said Amazon spokesperson Tim Doyle, in response to an inquiry from The Register. “This was never approved and is not going to happen.”

Or perhaps the online superstore caved under pressure. According to CNN, Trump called Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to complain after learning about the report. Amazon declined to offer any information on the White House’s call, so we can’t know for sure.

But the fact that the Trump administration responded so quickly and forcefully to an indie news report suggests they are aware at how politically unpopular the constantly shifting taxes are, and are anxious to bury their culpability in any upcoming price increases and, according to some Wall Street fortunetellers, empty shelves like we saw during Covid.

Trump’s political opponents certainly wasted no time making a big deal out of the Punchbowl News report, which might have blown over had Leavitt not called attention to it in a classic implementation of the Streisand effect. In a Senate floor speech on Tuesday, Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) hailed Amazon’s supposed plan and urged other retailers to follow.

“If Amazon has the courage to display why prices are going up because of tariffs, so should all of our other national retailers who compete with them,” said Schumer. “And I am calling on them to do it now.”

After Leavitt’s scolding and Amazon’s denial, Schumer doubled down, saying: “Apparently being honest and giving facts to Americans is now ‘hostile and political’ to Trump. Americans deserve to know the truth. But Trump wants to bully anyone who tells you the truth.”

Being honest and giving facts to Americans is now ‘hostile and political’ to Trump

As if to underscore that point, Trump called for an investigation of pollsters on his social media service Truth Social after reports of polls showing lack of support for the tariffs and for him personally.

Such rhetoric might be written off as political posturing but for the fact that former government officials like Chris Krebs are being probed by Trump allies. According to NPR, more than 100 political opponents have been targeted by the administration for retribution.

Amazon does have plenty of reasons not to arouse the president’s ire. It just launched 27 satellites as part of its Project Kuiper initiative – a bid to challenge Trump ally Elon Musk’s Starlink as an anywhere broadband communications service provider – and doesn’t want regulators like the Federal Communications Commission stalling future launches. Amazon is also fighting antitrust charges brought by the US Federal Trade Commission.

Certainly puts today’s events in context. ®