Bezos\u2019 empire includes a stake in the world\u2019s largest ecommerce platform and cloud computing provider, and ownership of rocket maker Blue Origin and one of America\u2019s most influential newspapers.<\/p>\n Roughly $28 million of the $40 million Amazon has paid for a Melania Trump documentary will go directly in the first lady\u2019s pocket, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.<\/p>\n Credit: According to six people who have worked closely with him across Amazon, Blue Origin, and The Washington Post, the decisions are part of a marked shift in Bezos\u2019 strategy toward Trump. These people painted a picture of a shrewd capitalist, making practical calculations to protect his businesses.<\/p>\n ,<\/p>\n But they also believe Bezos is operating with a dose of fear about Trump, as well as resentment toward what he considers to be the Democrats\u2019 \u201cvilification\u201d of Big Tech during the Biden administration.<\/p>\n Several of these people pointed to Amazon\u2019s loss of that $10 billion contract for the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure project (Jedi)\u2014the knockout punch of Bezos\u2019 ugly battle with Trump during his first term\u2014as a watershed moment.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was a joke at the time that it didn\u2019t cost Jeff Bezos $250 million to buy the Post, it cost him $10 billion,\u201d the newspaper\u2019s former editor Marty Baron tells the Financial Times.<\/p>\n A person who met Bezos days after the Pentagon blow says he was \u201cdeeply hurt\u201d by the ordeal. \u201cHe sat there going: \u2018This is not right.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n For Bezos there are enormous financial risks to Trump 2.0. His business interests are vulnerable to the tax and tariff debates in Washington, and hold tens of billions of dollars in government contracts spanning national security and space. They are also subject to significant oversight and pressure from regulators.<\/p>\n Perhaps most important to Bezos is the future of Blue Origin, his passion project that aims to make space travel accessible, as the company vies to win US government contracts\u2014often in competition with Elon Musk\u2019s SpaceX.<\/p>\n New Glenn lifts off on its debut flight.<\/p>\n Credit: Blue Origin is gaining momentum, successfully launching a heavy rocket into orbit in January and winning a contract to help send humans to the moon in 2029. But Bezos is still a distant second to Musk\u2014whose company SpaceX has 450 orbital launches under its belt\u2014and his rival\u2019s proximity to Trump presents another danger considering the two billionaires\u2019 frosty relationship.<\/p>\n A couple of weeks after November\u2019s election, Musk posted on X that Bezos was \u201ctelling everyone that [Trump] would lose for sure, so they should sell all their Tesla and SpaceX stock,\u201d forcing Bezos to reply \u201c100% not true.\u201d<\/p>\n ,<\/p>\n One longtime adviser cautions: \u201cHe cares most about Blue Origin. His chance of being the player he wants to become in space could be destroyed\u201d if the world\u2019s richest man and most powerful politician united against him. \u201cThe growth trajectory for the entire enterprise depends on the federal contract\u2026\u2009otherwise Blue is dead in the water.\u201d<\/p>\n People close to Bezos dispute the idea that he is trying to get in the Trump\u2019s administration\u2019s good books to protect his business interests. \u201cJeff doesn\u2019t make decisions out of fear or shape his actions to appease anyone,\u201d says one. \u201cThe idea that any move he makes is some calculated attempt to gain favor is not only false, it misunderstands who he is entirely.\u201d<\/p>\n In the first two decades of Amazon\u2019s life, Bezos distinguished himself by being largely detached from politics, even as the ecommerce company expanded to become one of the largest in the country\u2014and transformed whole areas of the economy in the process.<\/p>\n \u201cYou want to know why Jeff has changed? It is part practicality driven by fear, mixed with a little opportunism,\u201d says the adviser. \u201cJeff got frustrated with what he felt was demonization of tech by Democrats. It bugged him. Jeff felt like Biden went out of his way to get him and Amazon.\u201d<\/p>\n Bezos has long been sympathetic to libertarian political views, according to people close to him, the result of having spent a lot of time as a child with his grandfather in Texas. \u201cHe likes tough Texas ranchers\u2026\u2009he wants people to be independent and fix their own problems,\u201d says a former Blue Origin executive.<\/p>\n But the close associate pushes back on the notion that Bezos has genuinely shifted politically toward Trump. \u201cI don\u2019t think he is showing his true colors, [this is] not the Jeff I know. I just don\u2019t believe he suddenly thinks Trump is the answer.\u201d<\/p>\n ,<\/p>\n \u201cHe may not be all in [on Trump], but he\u2019s not stupid,\u201d says another former senior executive at Blue Origin. \u201cIt\u2019s a matter of preservation.\u201d<\/p>\n Baron views the heel-turn as largely a business matter. \u201cAm I to believe that the company that is the source of his wealth, and [the one that] is the focus of his passion, are totally irrelevant to him in all of this? Honestly I\u2019m just not that naive,\u201d says Baron, who steered the Post through the first Trump administration and the Bezos acquisition as editor from 2012 to 2021.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Credit: Now age 61, Bezos has changed physically too, Baron and others note, having bulked up to the physique of a bodybuilder. His personal life also transformed when he became tabloid fodder in 2019, divorcing his wife of 25 years after an affair was exposed in the National Enquirer. He is due to remarry this summer to former television anchor Lauren Sanchez.<\/p>\n Bezos\u2019 stark turn toward Trump might be in the best interests of the companies he founded. But it has alarmed the editorial staff at The Washington Post, fueling an exodus of talent and reportedly hundreds of thousands of subscribers from the newspaper that famously broke the Watergate scandal in the 1970s.<\/p>\n David Maraniss, a Pulitzer Prize-winning editor who has worked at the Post for 50 years, recently pledged to \u201cnever\u201d write for the newspaper while Bezos is owner. Maraniss tells the FT that the mood at the paper is \u201cdire, anxious, uncertain, angry, bereft.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m almost at the point where I just wish they could change the name of the paper, because it\u2019s not The Washington Post any more.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump, meanwhile, approves. \u201cI\u2019ve gotten to know him, and I think he\u2019s trying to do a real job\u2026 with The Washington Post, and that wasn\u2019t happening before,\u201d Trump said in a television interview on Sunday.<\/p>\n ,<\/p>\n As Bezos\u2019 business empire has grown, so have its links with the government.<\/p>\n Amazon and Blue Origin hold more than $20 billion in outstanding federal contracts, including the lunar mission and a $10 billion contract between the National Security Agency and its cloud arm, Amazon Web Services.<\/p>\n In the aftermath of the 2019 Jedi decision, Amazon filed its lawsuit alleging that the contract award to Microsoft had taken place due to \u201cimproper pressure\u201d from Trump. The Post\u2019s coverage had placed Bezos in Trump\u2019s \u201ccrosshairs,\u201d the lawsuit alleged, and cited an article that claimed the president had discussed ways to \u201cfuck with him [Bezos].\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe lawsuit was hyperbolic, but it was grounded in Jeff\u2019s thoughts,\u201d says a person familiar with the matter.<\/p>\n Although the government reopened bidding, it later axed the project under Biden. A subsequent multibillion-dollar cloud contract was split between Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Oracle.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the first administration Jeff was battling with Trump because Trump was coming after him, not because he was some super-progressive,\u201d says a person familiar with Bezos\u2019 decision making. \u201cAt the time he believed in the mission of the Post and said the damage to Amazon was worth the cost.<\/p>\n \u201cBut now Trump is back, that attitude is a casualty of the danger presented,\u201d the person adds.<\/p>\n Bezos and his Big Tech peers are also seeking a de-escalation of the Biden-era regulatory crackdown led by their b\u00eate noire Lina Khan, former chair of the Federal Trade Commission. In 2017, when studying at Yale Law School, Khan wrote an article titled \u201cAmazon\u2019s Antitrust Paradox\u201d criticizing \u201cpredatory pricing\u201d and calling for the ecommerce giant to be broken up.<\/p>\n Six years later, as head of the FTC, she sued the company for running a monopoly that seeks to \u201cinflate prices, degrade quality, and stifle innovation.\u201d The landmark case is scheduled for trial in October 2026.<\/p>\n ,<\/p>\n \u201cWhat Bezos and other tech titans have at stake is the FTC, and whether the [new] government is going after them for being monopolies,\u201d says Todd Harrison, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute think-tank. \u201cThe deference to Trump is about preventing direct legal action.\u201d<\/p>\n Bezos fears that the government might seek to make an example of Amazon rather than its tech rivals such as Google and Microsoft, according to two people familiar with the matter. However, Khan\u2019s replacement as FTC chair, Andrew Ferguson, has so far shown no sign of easing scrutiny of Big Tech.<\/p>\n \u201cWith Trump it\u2019s less about what he can take away so much as where he might apply the pressure,\u201d says one former Blue Origin executive.<\/p>\n Another close associate says that any move by Trump to deprioritize lunar missions in favor of Musk\u2019s aspirations to reach Mars would have a significant impact on the company\u2019s viability and success.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is what he has always dreamt of,\u201d the associate says. \u201cNothing will hurt Jeff financially\u2014Blue is a money loser. It is more the opportunity to be involved.\u201d<\/p>\n Even during the periods when he has been sparring with Trump, Bezos was careful to meet the president whenever requested and found redeeming qualities. He would praise Trump\u2019s \u201csavvy\u201d and tell aides that \u201che is smarter than you think,\u201d dismissing much of his behavior as \u201cbombastic theatre,\u201d one associate remembers.<\/p>\n In a December interview after Trump\u2019s victory Bezos described him as a changed man: \u201ccalmer than he was the first time\u2014more confident, more settled.\u201d<\/p>\n Bezos has also been careful to cultivate social and financial ties with his family.<\/p>\n In January 2020, he hosted an inauguration after-party of the exclusive Alfalfa Club at his mansion in DC\u2019s Kalorama neighbourhood, inviting non-members Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump as well as Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway. Ivanka Trump and Kushner also attended Bezos\u2019 holiday party at a sushi restaurant in Aspen late last year.<\/p>\n ,<\/p>\n Bezos and his fianc\u00e9e Lauren Sanchez stand next to tech billionaires Elon Musk and Google\u2019s Sundar Pichai, center, as Trump is sworn in. The January inauguration was supported by a $1 million donation from Amazon.<\/p>\n Credit: A person close to Bezos admits that the deal for the Melania Trump documentary \u201cis patently ridiculous, but is very pragmatic.\u201d The person adds: \u201cHe is doing a deal, offering money to buy the Trump family\u2019s affection and flattering the president. If you think about it in terms of costs versus benefit, it is pretty low. It\u2019s a smart investment.\u201d<\/p>\n Amazon says it signed the deal for the Melania Trump documentary \u201cfor one reason and one reason only\u2014because we think customers are going to love it.\u201d<\/p>\n Inside The Washington Post newsroom, Bezos\u2019 political transformation has been nothing short of traumatic.<\/p>\n Bezos acquired the Post in 2013 for $250 million after he was approached by the Grahams, a wealthy family that had controlled the paper for eight decades. At the time, the Post was in a commercial downward spiral, having been hit hard by the industry-wide disruption from the Internet.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom the moment he bought the paper, my sense was that Bezos is a killer, but at least he\u2019s killing for us right now,\u201d says Maraniss. \u201cSo there was always a little bit of concern about what might happen in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n Under Bezos\u2019 ownership, the paper initially enjoyed a renaissance. The Post picked up millions of subscribers, as Bezos had predicted it would, by reporting deeply on the rise of Donald Trump and his presidency. In the face of personal attacks from Trump, Bezos stood by the paper, authorizing a doubling of its political staff. He was intimately involved in a rebrand of the Post during the Trump years, even choosing the paper\u2019s new marketing slogan in 2016: \u201cDemocracy Dies In Darkness.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe actually was great during the first Trump administration. He was very, very arm\u2019s length. He was engaged at a high strategic level\u2026 He didn\u2019t at all get involved in the day to day, he just said: \u2018Try to not lose a lot of money,\u2019\u201d says a former executive.<\/p>\n ,<\/p>\n But the Post has struggled to hold on to the commercial success it had reached during the first Trump administration, falling far behind its biggest competitor, The New York Times. Its audience has shrunk and financial losses have ballooned.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s a highly rational person. I think he was comfortable losing $20 million a year. When it gets to $100 million a year, I don\u2019t know what his appetite is for that,\u201d says a former executive who worked closely with Bezos. \u201cI don\u2019t think for him it\u2019s like a mission business in the same way it would be for [the Graham family] or for the Sulzbergers [who own the New York Times].\u201d<\/p>\n The Washington Post chief executive Will Lewis answers employees\u2019 questions last year. Bezos\u2019 turn toward Trump has alarmed editorial staff, fueling an exodus of talent and subscribers.<\/p>\n Credit: This commercial struggle occurred at the same time that Bezos cozied up to Trump and began intervening on the Opinion section, further sinking morale across the newspaper. At least a dozen seasoned journalists have left to work for competitors.<\/p>\n Many saw a direct link between his muzzling of the newspaper and rewards for his other enterprises. Hours after Bezos spiked the paper\u2019s endorsement of Harris, Blue Origin chief executive David Limp met Trump at a rally in Texas. Former Post editor-at-large Robert Kagan criticized the meeting as a \u201cquid pro quo.\u201d<\/p>\n In the latest fracas, veteran journalist Ruth Marcus resigned last week, claiming that chief executive Sir Will Lewis had axed a column she had written criticizing Bezos\u2019 overhaul of the Opinion section. \u201cThe Washington Post I joined, the one I came to love, is not The Washington Post I left,\u201d Marcus said of the decision.<\/p>\n Yet for all the drama in the newsroom, public grievances lodged by senior journalists, and relentless media coverage depicting the Post in crisis, there is little indication that Bezos is fazed.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s a really tough guy. He\u2019s totally charming, but he didn\u2019t get where he was by being kind and gentle. In that sense, I don\u2019t know that he\u2019s changed,\u201d says the former Post executive. \u201cI remember him talking about the people he gets for the Amazon board, and he specifically picks people who don\u2019t give a shit what other people think. He doesn\u2019t want people on the board like \u2018oh my god, we don\u2019t air condition the warehouses?\u2019 I think he himself is like that, too.\u201d<\/p>\n In January, more than 400 Post journalists signed a letter imploring Bezos to meet them about their concerns. He did not respond.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s taken the organization in a certain direction and seems determined to do that, for whatever reason that he hasn\u2019t fully explained,\u201d says Baron, who adds that he has not tried to contact Bezos about his objections.<\/p>\n \u201cQuite simply, I do not think he cares what I think.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a9 2025 The Financial Times Ltd. All rights reserved. Not to be redistributed, copied, or modified in any way.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In October 2019, Amazon sued the Pentagon, alleging that President Donald Trump had blocked the company from securing a $10 billion cloud-computing contract because of his animus toward The Washington Post and its owner Jeff Bezos\u2014whom the US president derided as \u201cJeff Bozo.\u201d At the time, the dispute was just one example of the near-constant […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44384,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[9472,509,2539,1046,9605],"class_list":["post-44383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-amazon-2","tag-blue-origin","tag-donald-trump","tag-jeff-bezos","tag-syndication"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44383"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44383\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/melania-640x427.jpg\")
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\n Blue Origin<\/p>\n<\/figure>\nA detached beginning<\/h2>\n
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\n Financial Times<\/p>\n<\/figure>\nGrowth and engagement<\/h2>\n
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\n Chip Somodevilla\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/figure>\nThe Washington Post<\/h2>\n
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\n Robert Miller\/The Washington Post\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n