In late October, Jeff Bezos and Will Lewis (Murdoch crony and Washington Post CEO) ordered WaPo’s editors to dump the newspaper’s planned endorsement of Kamala Harris. The backlash to the decision was immediate, with thousands of people unsubscribing from WaPo and several journalists and editors stepping down. The day after the election, Bezos dropped his endorsement of Donald Trump though – Bezos congratulated Trump and openly kissed Trump’s dinosaur ass. Now this: Bezos will donate $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund.
Amazon.com is planning a $1 million donation to president-elect Donald Trump’s inaugural fund, as founder Jeff Bezos and other tech leaders shore up ties with the incoming administration. The donation is being prepared as Bezos, Amazon’s executive chairman, is slated to visit Trump next week at his private Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Fla., according to people familiar with the matter.
Tech companies have been the target of intense criticism by Trump and his allies, and other tech leaders have hastened to smooth ties with him. Mark Zuckerberg directed Meta Platforms to also make a $1 million contribution to Trump’s inaugural fund, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
Bezos and the company decided on the contribution earlier this week, and communicated it to Trump’s team, according to some of the people. “Bezos is donating through Amazon,” according to a person close to Bezos. Amazon also will stream the inauguration through its Prime Video business, a separate, in-kind donation valued at $1 million, another of the people said.
Amazon gave about $58,000 in cash and in-kind donations to Trump’s inauguration in 2017, when other tech companies donated larger amounts. Amazon was told by the Biden administration that it wasn’t accepting tech donations for the 2021 inauguration, according to a person familiar with the matter, although Amazon streamed the inauguration for President Biden.
During the first Trump administration, Bezos and Amazon actually lost a big government contract. Instead of holding a grudge and making it his life’s mission to send Trump straight to hell, Bezos has spent recent years “making nice” with Trump, supplicating and capitulating to whatever Trump does or says. It’s a pretty awful look in general, and a catastrophic look for the owner of the Washington Post. This is why millions of people have abandoned their newspaper subscriptions, by the way. People are also tuning out cable news in droves. The post-election media landscape is dire, but hey, those are the same media outlets who sanewashed Donald Trump for years and helped get him elected. (Also, it f–king sucks that Mark Zuckerberg is donating too.)
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
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- Executive Chairman of Amazon Jeff Bezos attends The Global Premiere of ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ at Odeon, Leicester Square, London, England, UK on Tuesday 30 August, 2022.,Image: 717738675, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: Please credit photographer and agency when publishing as Justin Ng/Retna/Avalon., Model Release: no, Credit line: Justin Ng / Avalon
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- Jeff Bezos attends ‘The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power’ – World Premiere at Leicester Square in London, England. UK. Tuesday 30th August 2022. -,Image: 717916283, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NORESTRICTIONS, Model Release: no, Pictured: ‘The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power’ – World Premiere, Credit line: JW / Bang Showbiz / Avalon
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- Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez at The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings of Power World Premiere at Odeon Luxe in Leicester Square, London, United Kingdom.,Image: 718168243, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: To licence this image, email info@sidetrack.london for more information., Model Release: no, Credit line: Cat Morley / Avalon
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- VIP guests arrive to attend a state dinner in honor of Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio hosted by US President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden at the White House in Washington Featuring: Jeff Bezos, Executive chairman of Amazon, and Lauren Sánchez Where: Washington, District Of Columbia, United States When: 10 Apr 2024 Credit: Ting Shen/POOL via CNP/INSTARimages.com **world rights**
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- VIP guests arrive to attend a state dinner in honor of Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio hosted by US President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden at the White House in Washington Featuring: Jeff Bezos, Executive chairman of Amazon, and Lauren Sánchez Where: Washington, District Of Columbia, United States When: 10 Apr 2024 Credit: Ting Shen/POOL via CNP/INSTARimages.com **world rights**
If he proposed a house to house slaughter these pathetic billionaires would be tripping over each other to supply the guns.
Craven, pathetic, groveling assholes
Greed. Greed. Greed. It’s repulsive.
This is what Timothy Snyder meant, when he wrote in “On Tyranny” — Do not obey in advance.
And they’re still doing it, and they’re expecting a better outcome.
Same with Meta/Zuckerberg — also donating a million.
Meanwhile I’m wondering which A-Listers are letting themselves be pressured into attending, instead of boycotting, like last time.
Fascism can’t exist without the cooperation of the corporate sector. Of course they will obey in advance.
Well. As if we needed more evidence that the US is ever more an oligarchy/plutocracy. Government for the rich, by the rich… funded by thr people. Mothereffer.
This is no longer a government by or for the people. it has been taken over by the billionaire class. We are in a sorry state and it’s about to get worse. The American people voted (or stayed home) for this. Democracy is DOA starting 1/20/2025.
I never thought I would see the day that America would have its own oligarch class like Russia and other authoritarian states. But here we are. 🤮
This.🤮
I’m still staunchly Team Trumpdidn’twin. If you can sort through the fake posts, there’s more information at the subreddit Something is Wrong 2024. I’m not befuddled: way too many freaks and morons voted for fascism with the hard r, but I am saying I think the GOP with the help of Elon and Russia literally cheated.
If they did cheat, they managed to do so in a way that left no evidence. Marc Elias of Democracy Docket says there is simply no evidence of fraud. Just the usual voter suppression and disinformation. People calling for recounts need to stop. The losing side can’t simply demand recounts without evidence that the outcome would be changed. Or unless the margin is within a certain percentage. It plays into MAGA’s notion that fraud is rampant in our system. Not helpful.
@Brassy Rebel. Okay. At which evidence has Marc Elias looked.
“I have all the votes. You don’t need to vote.”
“We have a special secret.”
Dozens of bomb scares called in across the country from Russia is literally the definition of interference.
If you buy the fiction that our entire country, sans Washington state and Oklahoma, tilted to the right, that all the counties that flipped this election flipped from blue to red, no exceptions, that exhausting Donald Trump, fellator of microphones and dancing for 40 minutes at his own rally, then I don’t know what to tell you. It simply doesn’t pass the smell test to me. Frankly I think the obsession with pretending that our elections are secure, no need to look closer, is going to do us in. I’m pretty sure that the GOP has been cheating – and I mean cheating, not just suppression, not just gerrymandering, but real actual cheating – since at least 2004. I include 2016 and 2020 in that. I think Biden probably won in a crazy landslide, hence Trump’s throwing an insurrection.
The way people are just stumbling into fascism and saying, “shut up, your doubts are helping the GOP” is really something else.
There are so many reasons why the Right won: the economy, immigration, distrust of Biden/Harris, COVID revisionist history, collective amnesia of Trump’s first term etc etc. I just don’t think we need to believe that it was a rigged election beyond the GOP’s standard-fare gerrymandering and voter suppression.
I am definitely not telling anyone who is claiming the election was rigged to STFU–and I don’t think BrassyRebel is either–because the GOP has sewn a level of distrust in the election process (i.e. Russian interference) that has reliably come to bear, but I really do think this is a case of Occam’s Razor. I SAW it myself in a deep blue state–the endless Trump parades, flags, signs etc. It was deeply concerning and definitely a harbinger of every county in Massachusetts shifting to the right during the last election. I mean, if it was swing states maybe I’d be more inclined to get on-board with election denial but every single reliably blue state shifted Right, which should be a HUGE wake-up call for Dems.
So again, I’m not trying to lecture anyone who feels like the election was rigged, but I also worry about us focusing on the unknown/unproven instead of focusing on the clear evidence that we are turning into a right wing country. We have to prepare ourselves for what’s ahead and forgo litigating the past because we can’t afford the distraction right now.
@Betsy: you can’t request recounts based on “concepts” of fraud anymore than you can have health care based on “concepts of a plan”. Marc Elias uses actual verifiable data, not what Trump says. We should be trying to stop the other stuff like voter suppression, gerrymandering, and disinformation. That’s something we know is happening not just a conspiracy theory. I don’t like the fact that 77 million people voted for fascism any more than you do. It says something very bad about this country and a large slice of its people. I try every day, though, to focus on the fact that 75 million others voted for something very different. We have to remain clear-eyed in order to defeat this scourge. The evidence is that millions of people are not “stumbling” into fascism. They’re running headlong into it.
Incredibly insulting diminishment of me pointing out Trump’s own words. Elon’s “lottery.” The fact that it is an established fact that russia interfered in our elections in 2016, 2020 and, by sheer fact of the bomb threats called into our polling places (and that’s just the acknowledged minimum), 2024. Romania and Georgia are essentially redoing their elections. Pointed public comments by former President Barack Obama on 12/05/24 in Chicago, from Hakeem Jeffries on 12/11/24, and even from former President Bill Clinton on the View this week.
People were and are exhausted by Trump. I do not believe that he won. I believe that the kompromat that Russia holds against the Republican Party – and remember that the RNC was hacked by Russia in 2016, the same as the DNC was, but nothing from the RNC was made public – is that the GOP has been cheating for decades, which means that much of the last twenty years has been based on cheating and lies.
Believe that Trump won if you like; there’s enough circumstantial evidence that he lost for me to feel comfortable in saying that I believe his “win” was fake.
I hope more people will stop buying from Amazon.
(I think a lot of you here already don’t buy from there).
I cancelled my membership when sometime ago. Why make these billionaires become trillionaires? I shop local or go online and buy direct from the company.
A lot of people will be cancelling their memberships when the economy tanks.
FlowerLake, Just going to add “where and whenever possible” to your statement. We live where this is still fairly simple (we wound up having to buy S-bags from bol dot com[terrible website] because none of the stores around us had them for our vaccuum cleaner). How people can shop and what they can buy locally may force some people to have to do things they’d rather not. Long commutes (1.5 hours one way), distances between picking up kids from different places, etc.
Thank you for this addition. I am lucky to live in a highly populated metro area and to be paid a decent wage, so I have the luxury (so-to-speak) of avoiding Amazon more than others might be able to. Those who can’t do the same shouldn’t feel bad about it.
I think many people do keep shopping at Amazon regardless of what they do. I don’t get it.
And we’re all out here supporting them. No shade. I’ve done it too.
I am changing my ways NO to twitter, facebook, instagram and amazon. It’s been a challenge – but I’m up for it. I also feel good about it.
Please don’t forget to add the LA Times’ Soon Shiong to that list of non-endorsing rich a-holes!
This is, unfortunately, not a surprise. Far right/ governments made up of corrupt oligarchies demand that people fall in line or get punished. These men have vast resources to fight authoritarianism, but clearly feel the need to protect their own interests Instead.
Gross!
I really wish that Biden and Harris wouldn’t attend this 💩 show inauguration. But, since it’s part of a peaceful transition, I know they will. Other former presidents will likely be there to support them in what is sure to be a terrible, traumatic experience for all decent people. Trump’s last inaugural address was a horror. Can you imagine this one? American carnage will seem quaint.
After Trump tried to have his VP and Congress murdered by his cult goons in 2021, I’d be afraid to attend his dictatorship installment if I were a Democrat.
Oh he donated to working class populist hero Donald Trump, man of The People? Wow awesome.
And this comes within days of DJT promising Wall St that he would cut taxes for the rich SMADH.
Is there a government that can be kleptocratic, authoritarian, autocratic, oligarchic, AND fascist? Take your pick, guys. The country is about to be run entirely by billionaires and we have our fellow Americans to thank for it.
How did Mackenzie do it all those years? The man is craven to the highest power so that he get tax breaks to send rockets above the earths atmosphere. She has continually and consistently contributed to uplifting people and humanity.
What a disgraceful human he is.
I imagine he got slowly worse as they got richer.
Well, I’m sure glad I deleted my Facebook account last summer. F–k Zuck. I hope people stop buying from Amazon too. I miss malls.
Only a million? That’s loose change for this guy.
Boycott this Kenny Chesney Ninja Turtle cosplayer and his company but I don’t see that happening when everyone needs their plastic goods shipped prime
Bezos is awful. I’m trying to cut of all Amazon ties. No more Prime. Bookshop.org for books. Everand for e-books and audio books. Storygraph instead of Goodreads.
Many libraries now have e-reader and audiobook apps too. In California the app is Libby. CA library cards also come with credits for streaming apps, Kanopy & Hoopla are a few, which is all free.
I left Facebook after tRump was elected the first time. I haven’t missed it. Now I unsubscribed from Amazon Prime and Audible. The last one left is Instagram, and I’m having a hard time leaving that one. Are there any alternatives to Instagram?
Also, remember that Zappos is owned by Bezos, too. I had to quit them as well.
Let’s put our money where our mouths are! It’s an Amazon-free Christmas for my family. Not just the political contributions, but the treatment and underpayment of their employees, and shameless union busting.
I’m already not on FB or Instagram, so that part’s easy.
This is what has prompted me to discontinue my ties to Amazon.
My pennies are just an invisible drop in the bucket but part of how I’m coping with the fear, anxiety, and tragedy in the world – the things I can’t control – is to take control of the things I can.
My intention is to be much more mindful of how I spend my time, my life, and my dollars. I don’t want any of those things going to people and organizations that are actively working against the public good.
Kiss-up son of a bitch. He needs to be cancelled.
Pocket change for Bezos so I guess it could be worse. He gave $100 million to the Obama foundation, suggesting that the Obama library’s plaza be named for John Lewis.
This feels like quid pro quo for streaming the inauguration, I just hate to see even $1 going in that direction.
Where are the best alternatives for online shopping to amazon? I’m in a rural location with a dearth of stores (even the local Walmart hasn’t reopened since the hurricane), but I like to vote with my dollars. I’m about 1.5-2hrs from the nearest city in any direction with shopping, and the husband and I both work full time so online shopping is really a priority.
I’ve been boycotting Amazon for at least 15 years, and I’m disabled and rely heavily on online shopping too. EBay is my greatest resource. Many companies maintain storefronts there and often you can buy direct from them. I recommend that you mark “US Only” to filter out a lot of the junk from China. (I buy many things second-hand that way, too.)
I used to work for a bookstore, and we used Amazon’s website all the time. “They spent two billion on that search engine” I told customers. Use Amazon’s search to determine what you want and then find that item elsewhere, on eBay or direct from the company that makes/sells it.
Thank you! I appreciate your response, and I’ll start checking out eBay. I used to use it back in its early days, but haven’t in probably a decade or more.
Trump isn’t the cause—he’s the inevitable result of decades of policies that favour corporations and the wealthy, starting with Reaganomics and the left’s slow capitulation to the corporatist class. Donations like Bezos’s show how tech leaders will always protect their interests, even if it means backing a figure like Trump who accelerates inequality and dismantles safety nets.
At the same time, the evangelical right enables this by framing suffering as God’s will, giving people false hope that enduring harmful policies will lead to prosperity. Without action—whether through voting or more direct resistance—Americans are slow-walking into fascism, assuming this is just a temporary four-year problem. It’s not.
Cancel prime. Don’t give him your money!!! CANCEL PRIME!!!!