Trump attacks Amazon for taxes, jobs

Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-17 10:32:20|Editor: ying
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WASHINGTON, Aug. 16 (Xinhua ) -- U.S. President Donald Trump criticized online retail giant Amazon over taxes and jobs in a tweet on Wednesday.

"Amazon is doing great damage to tax paying retailers. Towns, cities and states throughout the U.S. are being hurt -- many jobs being lost!" Trump wrote.

The tweet was issued hours after The Washington Post, a newspaper owned by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, published an editorial criticizing Trump's comments on Charlottesville violence.

The Washington Post has been constantly targeted by Trump in his anger against "fake news". Using the hashtag #AmazonWashingtonPost, Trump tweeted in June that the paper was "the guardian of Amazon not paying internet taxes (which they should)."

The latest feud adds a wrinkle to Trump's fractured relations with the business community, as the president abruptly shut down his two key groups of outside business advisers on Wednesday after several business leaders resigned over his remarks on race.

Amazon, a company that employs about 180,000 in the United States and has plans to hire 100,000 more full and part-time jobs by mid-2018, has been criticized by traditional retailers as people shift to online shopping.

Amazon collects state sales taxes in all 45 states with a sales tax and in the District of Columbia, according to their website.

In July, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin hinted that the administration is examining Amazon's tax status.

"So this is an issue that we've been looking at very carefully within the administration, and we expect to come out with a position shortly," Mnuchin told Congress in a hearing.

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