The Latest on President Donald Trump and his ongoing criticism of Amazon (all times local):
5:50 p.m.
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President Donald Trump says his administration is “going to take a pretty serious look” at Amazon and says: “We’ll see what happens.”
Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One during his trip home from West Virginia that the company he’s been railing against for days on Twitter is “just not on an even playing field.”
He says that, “in addition to having the Washington Post…what they have is a very uneven playing field.”
Trump’s complaints about the company have been criticized for appearing to be in response to negative stories by the newspaper. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos also owns the Washington Post.
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5 p.m.
Amazon is spending millions of dollars on lobbying as the global online retailer seeks to expand its reach into a swath of industries that President Donald Trump’s broadsides haven’t come close to hitting.
Trump’s attacks over the last week targeted what Amazon is best known for: rapidly shipping nearly any product imaginable to your door. But the company Jeff Bezos founded more than two decades ago is now a sprawling empire that sells groceries in brick-and-mortar stores, hosts the online services of other enterprises in a network of data centers, and recently branched into health care.
Amazon relies on an in-house lobbying team as well as outside firms to influence the lawmakers and federal regulators who can help determine its success.
Overall, Amazon spent $15.6 million on lobbying in 2017.
