Trump attacks Amazon over shipping prices

President Donald Trump targeted Amazon on Friday for unfairly benefitting from the U.S. Postal Service. “Why is the United States Post Office, which is losing many billions of dollars a year, while charging Amazon and others so little to deliver their packages, making Amazon richer and the Post Office dumber and poorer? Should be charging MUCH MORE!” Trump tweeted. While it’s not clear what prompted Trump’s attack, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos also owns The Washington Post, a publication the president often criticizes. On Wednesday, Amazon announced the company had record holiday shopping sales that included 4 million new Amazon Prime memberships in a single week. In 2017, Amazon captured nearly half of all online retail sales growth. The U.S. Postal Service is an independent agency within the federal government and does not receive taxpayer funding. It has lost money for 11 straight years due mostly to pension and healthcare costs. The mailing industry is a $1.4 trillion business that employs more than 7.5 million people. Amazon uses the U.S. Postal Service to deliver its packages as well as private companies like UPS and FedEx.