REPORT: Bezos Humiliated His Own WaPo Employees: ‘People There Are Terrible’

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos reportedly trashed The Washington Post as his worst investment during a private dinner with President Donald Trump, blasting the paper’s leadership months before ordering deep cuts across the newsroom.

Bezos made the remarks during a December 2024 dinner with Trump, according to a new book by New York Times journalists Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman.

“The people there are terrible,” Bezos told Trump, according to an excerpt obtained by The Post ahead of the June 23 release of “Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump.“

Bezos reportedly complained that the Post’s business side would not follow his direction after the newspaper lost more than $100 million that year.

“They don’t listen. My other companies, they listen,” Bezos said.

The comments offer a stunning glimpse into Bezos’ frustration with the left-leaning paper he bought in 2013, a publication long celebrated by media elites but increasingly battered by financial losses, subscriber revolts and internal turmoil.

About two months after the dinner, Bezos ordered the Washington Post’s opinion pages to promote “two pillars: personal liberties and free markets.”

The move came as subscribers peeled away in protest after the paper withheld its endorsement from Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.

In February, Bezos authorized a sweeping downsizing at the famed Watergate-era newspaper, eliminating roughly a third of its workforce.

The cuts included all staff photographers and the sports section.

Swan and Haberman described Bezos’ candid conversation with Trump as part of a broader effort by Big Tech executives to rebuild relations with the incoming president after years of hostility.

Trump had spent his political exile railing against what he viewed as bias from major news outlets and powerful internet platforms.

At the dinner, Trump reportedly complained directly to Bezos about the Post’s coverage.

Trump told Bezos “this Washington Post is really unfair. You’ve got to take better care,” the book says.

The authors wrote that Bezos did not exactly rush to defend the newsroom.

“Bezos commiserated with Trump over their December dinner, indicating that he, too, was deeply frustrated with the Post, though for a different reason.”

Trump later said Bezos told him the newspaper had damaged some of his personal relationships.

“In Trump’s telling, Bezos told him he had lost half his friends over the investment,” the authors write. “Bezos would tell others that wasn’t quite right: He hadn’t lost friends, but people close to him had urged him to sell the newspaper.”

Donald Trump also told the authors that he once “hated” Bezos during his first term because he believed the billionaire controlled what the Washington Post published about him.

“He said they write stories about him. And I didn’t believe him the first time, first term. And I hated him for it,” Trump recalled. “And then I believed him.”

Bezos was among several tech titans who moved closer to Trump after his 2024 election win, joining other powerful executives at the president’s inauguration.

A Washington Post spokesperson declined to comment.

It remains unclear how Jeff Bezos currently views the paper, though the Post has continued to face shake-ups after the newsroom cuts.

Former publisher and CEO Will Lewis, whom Bezos paid a $3 million salary, was removed shortly after this year’s mass firings after partying at the Super Bowl triggered criticism over tone-deaf optics.

RELATED: Washington Post Announces Mass Layoffs As Storied Outlet Hits ‘Breaking Point’

Before the larger newsroom cuts, the Post had already eliminated 4% of its staff in January 2025, mostly in the advertising department.

Jeff D’Onofrio, who previously worked at CafeMedia and Tumblr, has since replaced Lewis in an acting role.

D’Onofrio said he is “going to fight like hell for this institution” and has approved new content and licensing deals meant to bring in revenue from OpenAI, Apple News+ and Alexa+.

For conservatives long skeptical of the Washington Post, the reported Bezos remarks were a brutal confirmation of what critics have said for years: the paper’s biggest problems are not just political bias, but a business culture even its billionaire owner apparently could not control.

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