Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos congratulated President-elect Donald Trump on his victory.
“Big congratulations to our 45th and now 47th President on an extraordinary political comeback and decisive victory. No nation has bigger opportunities,” he wrote on X. “Wishing @realDonaldTrump all success in leading and uniting the America we all love.”
Bezos also issued a statement following the July 13 assassination attempt against Trump. At the time, he wrote, “Our former President showed tremendous grace and courage under literal fire tonight. So thankful for his safety and so sad for the victims and their families.”
The congratulatory statement comes as The Washington Post did not issue a presidential endorsement.
In an opinion piece for the paper prior to the election, Bezos admitted that Americans’ trust in the media is at a record low, with only 31% of Americans having a “great deal” or “fair amount” of confidence in it, according to a Gallup poll.
Bezos said newspapers must be “accurate, and we must be believed to be accurate.”
“Most people believe the media is biased. Anyone who doesn’t see this is paying scant attention to reality, and those who fight reality lose. Reality is an undefeated champion,” he explained. “It would be easy to blame others for our long and continuing fall in credibility (and, therefore, decline in impact), but a victim mentality will not help. Complaining is not a strategy. We must work harder to control what we can control to increase our credibility.”
Bezos added that “Presidential endorsements do nothing to tip the scales of an election. No undecided voters in Pennsylvania are going to say, ‘I’m going with Newspaper A’s endorsement.’ None.”
Ending newspaper endorsements is a “principled decision, and it’s the right one,” he asserted.
Social media users have since urged Bezos to reform both The Washington Post and Amazon.
