Trump criticizes Amazon.com’s ‘control,’ says it has ‘antitrust problems’

WASHINGTON — Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said on Thursday that Amazon.com, the world’s biggest online retailer, has “a huge antitrust problem.”

In an interview on Fox News, Trump also said Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos, who owns the Washington Post, is using the newspaper to influence politicians in Washington to help Amazon on taxes.

“This (Washington Post) is owned as a toy by Jeff Bezos, who controls Amazon. Amazon is getting away with murder tax-wise. He’s using the Washington Post for power so that the politicians in Washington don’t tax Amazon like they should be taxed,” Trump said.

“He’s using the Washington Post … for political purposes to save Amazon in terms of taxes and in terms of antitrust,” Trump said.

The comments came after the newspaper’s associate editor, Bob Woodward, was quoted as saying the Post has “20 people working on Trump.” The newspaper has also announced plans to publish a book on Trump.

In a statement, Post executive editor Martin Barron says he’s “received no instructions from Jeff Bezos” regarding campaign coverage, and the decision to write a book came from the newsroom. Amazon didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

“He thinks I’ll go after him for antitrust. Because he’s got a huge antitrust problem because he’s controlling so much, Amazon is controlling so much of what they are doing,” Trump said.