Washington Post owner Jeffrey Bezos has issued a message of congratulations to Donald Trump after the latter managed to pull off a surprising victory during the 2024 presidential election on Tuesday night. The Amazon CEO took to X a company owned by Trump crony Elon Musk wishing the president-elect congratulations.
“Big congratulations to our 45th and now 47th President on an extraordinary political comeback and decisive victory,” Bezos, 60, wrote. “No nation has bigger opportunities. Wishing @realDonaldTrump all success in leading and uniting the America we all love.”
The post was met with lots of pushback online. “Uh-huh. Thats great,” wrote one angry social media user. “Now lets talk about your propagandist newspaper that spewed lies for decades, and was complicit in sedition and treason by WITTINGLY deceiving the American People.”
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“And here I was musing about re-subscribing to The Washington Post… Guess not,” said a second person. “Now we know why the Washington Post was muzzled by Bezos,” a third person seethed.
Many on the social media site called out the billionaire over the hypocrisy after he allegedly canned the paper’s endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris, a move that broke the paper’s 36-year tradition of publishing an endorsement editorial. The 60-year-old vetoed the backing of the Democratic candidate for the first time since he took over the paper in 2013. According to some, the move was seen by many as an attempt to avoid Donald Trump’s wrath in case of a Republican win.
“We are returning to our roots of not endorsing presidential candidates,” Bezos said. The man added that he understood that the move could be interpreted in various ways, including as a subtle endorsement of the other candidate. The paper has typically aligned with the Democratic hopeful since 1976 and supported Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden during the 2016 and 2020 elections.
“That is inevitable. We don’t see it that way. We see it as consistent with the values The Post has always stood for and what we hope for in a leader: character and courage in service to the American ethic, veneration for the rule of law, and respect for human freedom in all its aspects,” Bezos continued.
Bezos’ move to cancel the endorsement seemingly angered many of the outlet’s legacy staff writers. Seemingly in response to the decision, Robert Kagan one of the paper’s longtime writers stepped down though he did not reveal the reason.
Several other former staff members were quite vocal about the sudden lack of endorsement. “This is cowardice, a moment of darkness that will leave democracy as a casualty,” Martin Baron, a former editor of the Post, told the newspaper. “Donald Trump will celebrate this as an invitation to further intimidate The Post’s owner, Jeff Bezos (and other media owners). History will mark a disturbing chapter of spinelessness at an institution famed for courage”
The union representing the newspaper’s staff, The Washington Post Guild, expressed their “deep concern” over the decision. “The message from our chief executive, Will Lewis – not from the Editorial Board itself – makes us concerned that management interfered with the work of our members in Editorial,” they stated.
“We are already seeing cancellations from once loyal readers,” said the guild. “This decision undercuts the work of our members at a time when we should be building our readers’ trust, not losing it.”
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