Washington Post senior editor Marc Fisher said on CNN’s Reliable Sources Sunday that President Trump attacks Amazon because he is jealous of Jeff Bezos.
Fisher told CNN that Trump’s attacks on Amazon and the Washington Post are “absurd,” specifically pointing to Trump’s claim that the Post serves as a “chief lobbyist” for Amazon.
“It’s an absurd claim. The Washington Post has done really a lot of critical reporting of Amazon,” Fisher said. “What’s really going on here is that the president, according to some people inside the White House, has kind of a jealousy issue with Jeff Bezos.”
Fisher speculated that the Trump made these claims about Amazon because he is obsessed with where he ranks on the Forbes list of richest people in the world and the Forbes list of the 400 richest people in America.
The president currently ranks at No. 766 on the list of richest people in the world.
“He’s had a long-standing obsession with that Forbes list and doesn’t like where he is on it,” Fisher said, adding that Trump doesn’t “quite get” the rise of online retailers like Amazon.
Trump criticized the Post for its fake news in a Sunday morning tweet after the paper published a story about White House Chief of Staff John Kelly losing influence in the West Wing.
New York Times Executive Editor Dean Baquet also went on CNN’s Reliable Sources Sunday to claim that Trump’s bashing of the media is “out of control” and that his advisers should tell him not to criticize the media.
Trump has taken the opportunity to criticize the media for publishing fake news since the 2016 presidential election and has continued to slam the media for its coverage during his presidency. In January, he tweeted out a link to the “Fake News Awards” presented on the GOP’s website declaring CNN as the winner of four fake news awards.