In a turn worthy of a fourth category tragicomedy, Amazon seemed, for a brief and fascinating moment, willing to bite the hand that has registered so much. Having financed campaigns, inaugurations and image washing at the service of Donald Trump, including the shameful censorship of The Washington Post to prevent Kamala Harris from supporting the campaign, the company of Jeff Bezos Amagó with an unexpected initiative: to show American consumers how much of the price of their purchases was directly due to the tariffs imposed by the stupid commercial war of Donald Trump.
The plan was simple, elegant and devastating: next to the price of each product, Amazon thought to break down the cost attributed to tariffs. A surgical transparency operation that, in addition to offering a valuable consumer service, put in front of the mirror to the most foolish economic populism in recent history. Trump, who proclaimed himself “the king of tariffs”, would have had to face an uncomfortable truth: his commercial war was not paid by China or Mexico, but the American citizens themselves, penny to Centa, in each purchase click. And that, in an economy such as electronic commerce, where the elasticity at the price of demand can make even the smallest increases in costs generate strong falls in consumption due to how low the search costs are, it can be lethal for any politician in search of re -election.
But, as expected, Amazon’s courage lasted what an ice cube in hell. As soon as the measure announced, the White House responded with fury, accusing the company to carry out a “hostile act” and to use a “political tactic” to damage the image of the president. The Trump Administration, in its infinite ability to project any other other than it, did not take long to point out that this simple exposure of objective data was, in reality and according to them, a vile political maneuver.
And Amazon? Cara, defended transparency, truthful information or business autonomy? No. As was sadly expected from a company whose spine is a permanent threat of decency that never becomes realized, Amazon reculled. In a matter of hours, he began to dilute his message, to clarify his position, to explain that the tariff breakdown would be experimental, optional, anecdotal, limited. A betrayal of betrayal, an absolute cowardice, a failed act of rebellion.
That Amazon has even considered exposing the real cost of tariffs is in itself a symptom. Not of the corporate courage that lacks completely, but of the unbearable weight of evidence: Trumpist protectionism has been a first -order economic disaster, and its legacy, in terms of damage to supply chains, inflation and international competitiveness, is increasingly difficult to hide. Even for those who invested fortunes to make it arrive at the White House.
In the background, Amazon was not going to do anything heroic. He did not intend to defend principles. He was simply to protect his results account, his operational margin, his vacuous consumerist sanctuary of Prime Day, in front of the real threat that consumers, for once, understood exactly how they were stealing them in the name of an alleged “patriotism” of balance, of a manual populist.
Amazon’s betrayal to Trump would have been wonderful and above all, very logical. What needs to be done when an unjustifiable and stupid decision harms you, or even more, harms everyone. But a true betrayal requires value, vision, historical sense. Things that Amazon, as usual, lacks industrial quantities. Too bad.
This article is also available in English on my Medium page, «How Amazon backed down when Trump called its bluff«
