President Trump has taken another swipe at Amazon, lashing out on Twitter at 3:12am ET and momentarily sending the company’s stock tumbling.
The American president claimed that Amazon is hurting U.S. retailers, causing jobs to be lost in small towns and cities.
It’s true that American retailers are doing poorly, and Amazon is conversely making more revenue than ever. Household American names like J.C. Penney, RadioShack, Macy’s, and Sears each closed more than 100 stores in 2016, while Amazon’s North American business brought in $79 billion in revenue, more than three times what Macy’s generated. Despite these closures and Trump’s assertions, Bureau of Labor Statistics data show that jobs in the sector continue to rise.
Amazon, which typically hires warehouse workers instead of retail, has also grown its workforce over the past years. This month it set out to recruit 50,000 people (quickly gathering 20,000 applications), and committing to creating a total of 100,000 new U.S. jobs by mid-2018.
It’s not unusual for Trump to use his presidential pulpit on social media to call out American companies. In the past he’s criticized the costs of Boeing and Lockheed Martin aircraft, as well as the retailer Nordstrom for discontinuing his daughter Ivanka’s clothing line.
The tweets rattled Boeing and Lockheed shares, but Nordstrom actually saw a short-term boost.
Trump has typically attacked Amazon founder Jeff Bezos for his ownership of the Washington Post. Despite Trump’s assertions, Amazon does not own the Washington Post—instead its owned directly by Bezos.
The president has tweeted about Amazon in the past, but before his presidential campaign those tweets exclusively promoted books and Trump products sold on Amazon.com.