#squawk box

Caleb Ecarma at Oligarch Watch:

Since assuming office again last year, Donald Trump has called for the arrest of Barack Obama, promised to annihilate a “whole civilization” during his war on Iran, and deployed federal shock troops at home to intimidate left-leaning cities, resulting in the murders of numerous Americans. But to Jeff Bezos, Trump in his second term “is a more mature, more disciplined version of himself than he was in his first term.” The centibillionaire and executive chairman of Amazon, who made the comments during an interview with CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin that aired on Wednesday, added that “Trump has lots of good ideas.” “He’s been right about a lot of things,” he continued. “You have to give him credit where credit is due.” Since relinquishing his role leading Amazon’s day-to-day operations in 2021, Bezos has placed more of his focus on Blue Origin, a rocket and space exploration company he founded in 2000. His rare interview with CNBC, for instance, was filmed at Blue Origin’s factory in Florida.

But the company has had little success compared to SpaceX, its top rival. To have any shot at catching up, Blue Origin will require a steady stream of government launch contracts. That dependency could explain Bezos’ newfound admiration for Trump, a man he previously accused of harboring a “personal vendetta” against him.

Bezos framed his relationship with Trump as something akin to a public service. “We need our business leaders to provide input into the administration, regardless of who the president is,” he said. “I’m on the side of America, and that is so important. Like, and that’s where business leaders should be… we get perceived as being like, you know, partisan or whatever. Like, I was helping Obama every chance I could. I was helping Biden every chance I could.” Bezos went on to say he still calls “Obama for advice,” describing the former president as “a very smart guy.”

He also defended Amazon’s move to pay $40 million to buy the rights to Melania Trump’s hagiographic documentary, which many interpreted as a fairly direct attempt by Bezos to bribe the president. “The Melania thing is a falsehood that will not die,” he said. “Even though I had nothing to do with it, you know, it appears that the Amazon team made a very wise business decision.” The documentary almost certainly lost tens of millions of dollars.

At another point in the interview, he insisted that there is “no truth to this ‘buy, borrow, die’ thing,” referring to a tax avoidance strategy commonly used by the ultra wealthy, including Elon Musk and Larry Ellison. Bezos attempted to back his claim by saying he pays capital gains on Amazon shares that he offloads to fund his other businesses. He then added that fixing the “buy, borrow, die” loophole would not help a “nurse in Queens” making $75,000 a year.

To help that “nurse in Queens,” a hypothetical person whom Bezos referenced numerous times during the interview, the billionaire claimed he would “advocate” eliminating taxes for the bottom half of earners. “We shouldn’t be asking this nurse in Queens to send money to Washington,” he said. “They should be sending her an apology. It really makes no sense.”

Appearing on CNBC’s Squawk Box last Wednesday, Amazon founder and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos ludicrously asserted that Donald Trump is “a more mature, more disciplined version of himself than he was in his first term.”

From the 05.20.2026 edition of CNBC's Squawk Box:

FINALLY

im glad i could provide thats what ive dedicated myself to o7

1:56

Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) said Tuesday on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that it was “absolutely a fallacy” that the United States is getting ripped off because they have a trade deficit with another country.

Paul said, “I mean, the whole debate is so fundamentally backwards and upside down. It’s based on a fallacy, and the fallacy is this, that somehow, in a trade, someone must lose. That somehow, when you trade with someone, there’s a loser and someone’s taking advantage of you, and China is ripping you off, or Japan is ripping you off. It’s absolutely a fallacy. Every trade that occurs in the marketplace is mutually beneficial.”

He continued, “If you have a free society and I trade with you, if you want to sell me your coat and I give you $200 for it, we both agree to it and we’re both happy with the trade. No American consumer trades with China. They trade with Wal-Mart or they may buy something from China, but they individually buy something they want and they make a decision. The trade is always a win-win. Now you can artificially do this accounting between countries and say, ‘Oh, trade deficit, look at this trade deficit,’ but I have a trade deficit with my grocery store.”

Pumpkin loves his Gotcha Day Squawk Box 🤍💛🧡

But which toy to focus on?!?

$35 for a single box seems expensive to me; I'd like to take a 3 or 6 month subscription, but that's too expensive for me to pay in full right now, too. I'm also worried that selected toys may contain rope - something my birdies cannot have. (Rope is dangerous for birds if ingested, and Peawee will absolutely try to eat it.)