Jeff Bezos: No Deal with Trump over Blue Origin Meeting

Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon and Blue Origin and owner of The Washington Post, has come forward to clear the air about recent controversies. He claims there's no link between the Post's decision not to endorse a presidential candidate and his space company's meeting with former President Donald Trump. This unusual decision by the Post, which hasn't happened in nearly four decades, has sparked a lot of questions and concerns among readers. Bezos, currently the third-richest person in the world, took to publishing an editorial to address the sudden surge in subscription cancellations. By Monday afternoon, over 200, 000 subscribers had canceled, which is about 8% of the paper's paid circulation, according to NPR. The general confusion and anger came not just from the lack of endorsement, but also from the appearance of a possible deal between Trump and Bezos. "There's no connection or trade-off happening, " Bezos asserted. He insisted the decision was entirely internal and neither presidential campaign was involved. He even mentioned that he was surprised to learn about Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp's meeting with Trump, revealing that neither he nor Limp knew about it beforehand. Trump also met with Blue Origin's vice president of government relations, Megan Mitchell.Blue Origin has a significant contract worth $3. 4 billion to build spacecraft for astronauts for lunar missions. The company is competing with SpaceX and United Launch Alliance for additional contracts worth up to $5. 6 billion for the next few fiscal years. During Trump's presidency, Amazon sued the government after losing a multi-billion-dollar contract to Microsoft. The contract was later canceled under the Biden administration. The Post's decision not to endorse a candidate has been seen as a strategic move by many tech executives and billionaires. They're preparing for a potential second Trump administration. Top execs like Mark Zuckerberg, Tim Cook, Andy Jassy, and Sundar Pichai have all had recent meetings with Trump. Bezos acknowledged that executives from his companies frequently meet with government officials. He sees his wealth and business interests as a shield against intimidation, but also admits it can be viewed as a web of conflicting interests. He stressed that his principles guide his actions.