Bezos calls – Jeff Bezos faced a storm of criticism after praising President Donald Trump as “more mature” and “more disciplined” in remarks shared on Wednesday by CNBC. Critics pointed to Bezos’s shifting relationship with Trump from their tense first-term years—when Trump
Jeff Bezos didn’t just praise President Donald Trump—he did it with unusually high praise, and the internet did not let him enjoy it.
In a CNBC interview published Wednesday, Bezos said, “I think he is a more mature, more disciplined version of himself than he was in his first term.” He added: “Trump has lots of good ideas. He’s been right about a lot of things. You have to give him credit where credit is due.”
For critics watching from the sidelines, it wasn’t the compliment that landed—it was the contrast. Bezos, whose net worth Forbes estimates at $272 billion, also told CNBC he has worked with presidents of both parties and will continue to do so.
The backlash came fast, and it spread across social media with mocking disbelief. Aaron Rupar shared Bezos’s comments with the caption: “Pathetic”: Critics Rip Jeff Bezos After ‘Single Most Embarrassing’ Pro-Trump Claim Ever—while other users questioned the reality behind the praise.
Mehdi Hasan. sharing the remarks. pushed back on the idea that Trump is “more disciplined” now. pointing to what he described as Trump’s own online behavior. Ruth Ben-Ghiat questioned what she called Bezos’s “bubble. ” saying that sooner rather than later he would have to “work harder to inhabit that charmed amoral space.” Bill Kristol framed Bezos’s praise as a billionaire version of political sycophancy. arguing that “the billionaires are just as bad” and “won’t lose their job.” George Conway mocked the notion that someone as wealthy as Bezos would “feel the need to lie for money.”.
The sharpest criticism was fueled by Bezos’s well-documented shift during Trump’s time in the White House—and during the lead-up to the 2024 election.
During Trump’s first term, Trump frequently attacked Bezos over reporting that was critical of him and his administration in The Washington Post, which Bezos owns. That hostility, according to the account shared in the material driving this discussion, changed dramatically during the 2024 campaign.
Bezos killed the newspaper’s endorsement of then-Vice President Kamala Harris. After Trump won, Bezos spoke glowingly about how much the president had grown.
The compliments were not only political; they were financial, too. Amazon, the company Bezos founded, paid $75 million for the rights to and marketing of a documentary about first lady Melania Trump. The movie made $16 million at the box office.
Bezos insisted he had no personal role in that deal. “I had nothing to do with that,” he said in the CNBC interview, while calling the investment “a very wise business decision.”
Additional ties between Amazon and Trump-related plans also resurfaced in the discussion. The material notes that Amazon reportedly contributed $1 million to Trump’s inauguration committee and is listed as a contributor to the planned White House ballroom that Trump has obsessed over.
Earlier this year, Trump praised Bezos for doing “a real job” with The Washington Post, an exchange that now looks, to many critics, like the payoff for turning down confrontation and moving toward praise.
Bezos’s claims—that Trump has become “more mature. ” “more disciplined. ” and “right about a lot of things”—may have been delivered as admiration on Wednesday. but they were received as a warning sign by people arguing that the pressure of second-term power has changed what powerful corporate leaders feel able to say.
Tim Miller. in one post circulating the remarks. suggested that if the administration’s direction continues. legal consequences might follow corporate actors. Another critic argued that the praise itself points to “significantly increased corruption” in Trump’s second term. describing it as a kind of compelled flattery: praise “or else he’ll use the power of the govt against Bezos.”.
For all the fury online, Bezos’s core pitch remained the same: Trump, he said, has been right about a lot, and he has matured since the first term.
Whether those words land as business-friendly realism—or as something else entirely—has become the real story now: not just what Bezos said, but the speed with which people rejected it.
Jeff Bezos Donald Trump CNBC The Washington Post Amazon Melania Trump documentary Kamala Harris endorsement White House ballroom inauguration committee