Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos on Wednesday pushed back on criticism from Donald Trump after the presumptive GOP presidential nominee raised anti-trust issues with the tech giant.
“My view is that’s not an appropriate way for a presidential candidate to behave,” Bezos said during a question-and-answer with the Washington Post, the newspaper that he also owns.
{mosads}Bezos said Amazon deserves to be scrutinized but that he had no worries about the company’s conduct.
Bezos was reacting to Trump’s comments during an appearance on Fox News last week.
Trump alleged that the Washington Post was being critical of his candidacy at the behest of Bezos. Trump had made similar claims in the past that Amazon was not paying its fair share of taxes. During the last week’s interview, he also raised anti-trust concerns with the company.
“What they’ve done is he bought this paper for practically nothing, and he’s using that as a tool of political power against me and against other people,” Trump said.
“So what they’re doing is he’s using that as a political instrument to try and stop anti-trust, which he thinks I believe he’s anti-trust, in other words, what he’s got is a monopoly. And he wants to make sure I don’t get in.”
The Post’s Executive Editor Martin Baron previously denied receiving any editorial direction from Bezos.