Jeff Bezos told Trump the Washington Post was his worst investment before slashing staff: ‘People there are terrible’. NYP 6/17/26
WASHINGTON — Amazon founder Jeff Bezos called the Washington Post his worst investment in a conversation with President Trump months before gutting the newsroom, according to a new book by New York Times journalists Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman.
"The people there are terrible," Bezos told Trump over dinner in December 2024, according to an excerpt obtained by The Post ahead of the June 23 release of"Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump."==
"They don't listen. My other companies, they listen," Bezos said, focusing his ire at the business side of the publication after losing more than $100 million that year.
About two months after the dinner, Bezosorderedthe Washington Post'sopinion pages to promote "two pillars: personal liberties and free markets"— as subscribers peeled off in protest of the paper withholding its endorsement from Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
Bezos thisFebruary authorized the sweeping downsizingof the celebrated Watergate paper, eliminating roughly athird of its workforce, including all staff photographers and the sports section.
Bezos' candor with Trump was describedby Swan and Habermanas part of a larger effort by Big Tech titanstocozy up with the incoming president, who had spent his four years in political exile railing against what he viewed as bias by news outlets and major internet platforms.
Trump told Bezos "this Washington Post is really unfair. You've got to take better care," the book says.
"Bezos commiserated with Trumpover their December dinner,indicating that he, too, was deeply frustratedwith the Post, though for a different reason."
"In Trump's telling,Bezos told him he had lost half his friends over the investment," the authors write. "Bezos would tell others that wasn't quite right:He hadn't lost friends, but people close to him had urged him to sell the newspaper."
Trump said in an interview for the book that he "hated" Bezos during his first termunder the mistaken belief thatthe billionaire controlled what the newspaper wrote.
"He said they write stories about him. And I didn't believe him the first time, first term.And I hated him for it,"Trump recalled. "And then I believed him."
A Washington Post spokesperson declined to comment.
It's unclear how Bezos currently views the Post. The paper's former publisher and CEO Will Lewis — whomBezos paid a $3 million salary — was tossed out shortly after this year's mass firingsfor partying at the Super Bowl, sparking afirestorm of criticism over the tone-deaf optics.
Before the large-scale downsizing, the Post had in January 2025 eliminated 4% of its staff focused on the advertising department.
https://www.aol.com/articles/jeff-bezos-told-trump-washington-203407849.html
(So it seems the only people that read the post arehatersof Republicans and Trump, and ridiculously, Kamala Lovers. No wonder it’s losing money, similar to NYTs. That tells you how stupid the writers and readers are!)