The White House is coming down on Amazon over a Tuesday report from Punchbowl News that claimed the world’s largest online retailer will start showing how much Trump’s tariffs affect the price of each product. Amazon, however, says the report was inaccurate and “never a consideration for the main Amazon site.”
The Punchbowl report said Amazon planned to show the impact of tariffs “right next to the product’s total listed price,” according to a person familiar with the plans.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt erupted at Amazon over the report on Tuesday morning, calling it a “hostile and political act.”
But Amazon spokesperson Ty Rogers told Fortune on Tuesday morning that the company has only considered such a move, and that it would apply only to a new Temu-like section of the Amazon Haul shopping site that just launched six months ago—if implemented at all.
“The team that runs our ultra low cost Amazon Haul store has considered the idea of listing import charges on certain products,” Rogers said in the statement. “Teams discuss ideas all the time. This was never a consideration for the main Amazon site and nothing has been implemented on any Amazon properties.”
The company then followed up with a new, more definitive statement from a separate spokesperson, Tim Doyle, making clear the idea “was never approved and is not going to happen.”
Previously, Amazon spokesperson Ty Rogers had clarified that if implemented, the move would be a reaction to the end of a longstanding trade loophole known as de minimis—which allows overseas companies to ship merchandise under $800 to U.S. customers without having to pay duties—and not explicitly to the Trump administration’s reciprocal tariffs. President Trump has signed an executive order that would ban the duty-free de minimis exception for goods from China and Hong Kong beginning May 2. In response, ultra-discounter Temu, which relies on de minimis to keep prices dirt-cheap, has begun listing “import fees” at checkout to help explain skyrocketing prices on its apps. Amazon had said the move under consideration would be a similar one.
But the White House press secretary was asked about the report prior to Amazon’s clarification.
“Why didn’t Amazon do this when the Biden administration hiked inflation to the highest level in 40 years?” Leavitt asked. “This is another reason why Americans should buy American.”
To be clear, the inflation Leavitt is referencing, which peaked during the Biden administration, was largely organic. An array of global and domestic factors played into inflation, from disruptions in the supply chain caused by the COVID-19 pandemic to the heightened consumer demand since everyone was locked down and forced to stay home. That time was also marked by labor shortages and a big spike in energy prices from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in early 2022. In contrast, Trump’s tariffs—particularly on Chinese goods—were a conscious and targeted policy decision, the cost of his political strategy.
Before the press briefing, Leavitt said she had “just got off the phone with the president about Amazon’s announcement.”
Like many other retailers, especially those advertising discount prices like Shein or Temu, Amazon is particularly vulnerable to Trump’s proposed reciprocal tariffs on imports. Amazon sells millions of items across myriad product categories, from clothes to toys to electronics and more. Many of those products are manufactured in China, and Trump has imposed a 145% tariff on imports from the country, which is the world’s second-largest economy. Amazon’s third-party sellers are equally exposed.
