Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has tweeted just two times this year as of this writing, which isn’t necessarily noteworthy in and of itself — but for the fact that both of those tweets happen to be about (and in praise of) the same person.
Bezos’ first tweet of the year came on July 13, the same day President Trump was shot by an assassin in Butler, Penn. “Our former President showed tremendous grace and courage under literal fire tonight,” the Amazon founder tweeted to his more than 6 million followers. “So thankful for his safety and so sad for the victims and their families.”
The only other time Bezos has posted a tweet this year came after Trump’s re-election, just days ago. Bezos tapped out the following 35-word tweet, in which he gushed over the president’s political comeback: “Big congratulations to our 45th and now 47th President on an extraordinary political comeback and decisive victory. No nation has bigger opportunities. Wishing @realDonaldTrump all success in leading and uniting the America we all love.”
Perhaps it’s a simple coincidence that Trump is the only thing that’s motivated Bezos to write a few tweets this year. If you’re willing to accept that, though, common sense should tell you that it’s also just as possible that Bezos, even if he’d never admit it, has seen how cozy Elon Musk is with Trump and is similarly trying to put himself in the running for Trump’s new tech industry BFF.
Not that there’s anything wrong, in and of itself, with sucking up to The Man. We all do it, to one degree or another. But when you couple Bezos’ pro-Trump tweets with the furor he was willing to accept over killing his newspaper’s endorsement of Kamala Harris — along with the fact that Amazon is building a satellite broadband provider called Kuiper that would rival Elon Musk’s Starlink, in addition to the understanding that Trump has no problem picking favorites among American companies — then it seems to me that you’re left with an inescapable conclusion:
Bezos has clearly read the writing on the wall.
He might not be as willing as Elon to fully hop on board the Trump train, but you can’t fault him for wanting his own piece of the Elon-Trump bromance. After all, billions of dollars are at stake, especially if Trump gets his beloved tariffs going strong again. “To me, the most beautiful word — and I’ve said this for the last couple of weeks — in the dictionary today and any is the word ‘tariff’,” Trump said during his interview with Joe Rogan. “It’s more beautiful than love, it’s more beautiful than anything. It’s the most beautiful word.”
And so, the race to curry favor and kiss the ring — and to tweet sweet nothings at the incoming 47th president — has begun in earnest.
