Amazon founder Jeff Bezos privately expressed deep frustration about The Washington Post during a December 2024 dinner with then-President-elect Donald Trump, calling the newspaper his “worst investment” just months before authorizing massive staff reductions. The revelation comes from an upcoming book by journalists Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman that details conversations between the billionaire and the incoming president.
Bezos reportedly criticized the newspaper’s business leadership after the publication recorded losses exceeding $100 million that year. “The people there are terrible,” Bezos told Trump, according to excerpts from “Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump.” The tech entrepreneur contrasted the Post’s management with his other ventures, noting that leaders at his other companies followed his direction while newspaper executives did not.
Trump and Bezos found common ground over newspaper complaints
During the private dinner, Trump directly confronted Bezos about the Post’s editorial coverage. “This Washington Post is really unfair. You’ve got to take better care,” Trump said. The former president had long criticized the newspaper’s reporting about him throughout his first administration.
Swan and Haberman wrote that both men discovered shared frustrations with the publication, though their grievances stemmed from different sources. Trump focused on coverage he deemed unfavorable, while Bezos expressed dissatisfaction with business operations and management performance. The dinner conversation marked a notable moment of alignment between two figures who had previously clashed.
Trump later revealed to the authors that his perception of Bezos’s control over the Post’s editorial decisions had evolved. “He said they write stories about him. And I didn’t believe him the first time, first term. And I hated him for it. And then I believed him,” Trump stated in the book.
Non-endorsement decision sparked subscriber exodus and internal turmoil
The December dinner occurred after the Washington Post made the controversial decision to withhold an endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential race. The move triggered immediate backlash, with thousands of readers canceling subscriptions and staff members expressing public disagreement with the editorial choice.
Bezos defended the non-endorsement strategy in an October 2024 opinion piece, arguing that presidential endorsements damage media credibility rather than influence elections. “Presidential endorsements do nothing to tip the scales of an election,” Bezos wrote. “What presidential endorsements actually do is create a perception of bias.”
- The newspaper lost more than $100 million in 2024
- Thousands of subscribers canceled after the non-endorsement decision
- Bezos claimed buying the Post cost him personal friendships
- One-third of staff positions were eliminated in February 2026
Major restructuring eliminated key sections and foreign bureaus
In February 2026, the Washington Post implemented sweeping layoffs that cut one-third of its workforce. The reductions eliminated the entire sports section, books coverage, and several international bureaus. Executive editor Matt Murray informed staff that the publication could no longer maintain comprehensive coverage across all areas. “We can’t be everything to everyone,” Murray wrote in a memo to employees.
The layoffs followed Bezos’s announcement of a strategic shift for the opinion section toward “personal liberties and free markets.” Opinion editor David Shipley resigned after the editorial direction change. “We are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets,” Bezos wrote to staff in February 2025.
Leadership changes accompanied workforce reductions
Will Lewis, who served as publisher and chief executive officer, stepped down within days of the layoff announcement. The timing raised questions about leadership accountability for the newspaper’s financial struggles and editorial controversies. Jeff D’Onofrio, the Post’s chief financial officer, assumed interim CEO and publisher responsibilities following Lewis’s departure.
According to the book, Trump claimed Bezos told him that purchasing the Washington Post had damaged personal relationships. The authors noted that people close to Bezos later urged him to consider selling the newspaper. The Post’s spokesperson declined to provide comment on the revelations about the Trump-Bezos dinner conversation and subsequent business decisions.
