Amazon founder Jeff Bezos offered up “big congratulations” to Donald Trump for his “extraordinary political comeback and decisive victory” in Tuesday’s election — less than two weeks after he blocked the Washington Post’s editorial board from endorsing his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris.
“Big congratulations to our 45th and now 47th President on an extraordinary political comeback and decisive victory,” Bezos, the billionaire who bought the Post more than a decade ago, wrote on his X social media account on Wednesday.
“No nation has bigger opportunities. Wishing @realDonaldTrump all success in leading and uniting the America we all love.”
Contrary to polls which predicted a photo finish, Trump soundly defeated Harris in Tuesday’s election, according to media projections.
The projections are based on updated vote counts from the seven key battleground states — all of which will likely be captured by the Republican former president once the final votes are officially tallied.
Harris supporters on Wednesday responded to Bezos’ tweet by venting their frustration over his newspaper’s abandonment of its decades-long policy of endorsing a presidential candidate.
“Bezos get the f–k out of here. He can’t unite us. The man behind January 6. You scared sycophant,” wrote on angry X user.
“Thank you for this reminder to cancel my Amazon Prime membership,” another X user commented.
Trump supporters praised Bezos for the non-endorsement.
Valentina Gomez, a former Republican candidate for Missouri secretary of state, wrote: “Jeff, you went against the status quo of not making an endorsement towards the democrats. You’re a businessman and a leader not a loser and a follower.”
“You got balls,” Gomez wrote.
Other Trump backers urged Bezos to use the opportunity to reverse the Washington Post’s leftist tilt.
“Well said Jeff. Now put some of your vast amounts of money where your mouth is and go gut the Washington Post and turn that socialist rag into a respectful media outlet once and for all,” one X user wrote.
The Washington Post reportedly lost 250,000 subscribers — or 10% of its regular readership — after Bezos made the decision to block the newspaper’s editorial board from publishing its prepared endorsement of Harris.
Bezos wrote an essay in his newspaper explaining the decision as one of “principle” which was aimed to dispel the notion that the publication was biased.
The Amazon founder also denied that the decision was part of a strategy to curry favor with Trump given the fact that his administration will have regulatory oversight of industries where Bezos has significant financial interests.
Bezos, who is no longer CEO of Amazon but remains its largest shareholder, is also the owner of Blue Origin, a space exploration company that is seeking to win federal contracts to transport American astronauts to and from the moon.
The newspaper’s decision not to endorse prompted the resignations of two of its columnists as well as three of the nine members of the editorial board.
Bezos has reportedly given Washington Post CEO Will Lewis a mandate to broaden the newspaper’s readership by including more conservative voices on its op-ed page.
Hugh Hewitt, the conservative radio talk show host who for years contributed columns to the Washington Post’s op-ed page, abruptly quit the paper after storming out of a live broadcast alongside two of the broadsheet’s liberal writers.
