Do Amazon & the Post Office Have a Toxic Relationship? President Trump's Tweets Explained
President Trump ordered a formal review of the U.S. Postal Service on Thursday, after weeks of saying the online retailer Amazon does not pay what it should for shipping packages.
The [executive order](https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-task-force-united-states-postal-system/) calls for a task force to evaluate the postal service’s “unsustainable financial path.”
Though the order doesn’t name Amazon, it does instruct the task force to examine the “expansion and pricing of the package delivery market,” which Amazon and other retailers use for delivery services.
In 2017, the USPS reported a nearly $1.8 billion loss in revenue, “driven largely by accelerated declines in First-Class and Marketing Mail volumes,” the postal service [said in a statement](http://about.usps.com/news/national-releases/2017/pr17_069.htm) last year. Revenue from package shipping grew by almost 12 percent, to $19.5 billion. Private shippers accounted for about $7 billion of that revenue, [according to Politifact](http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2018/apr/02/donald-trump/trump-usps-postal-service-amazon-losing-fortune/). It is unclear how much of that can be attributed to Amazon, which is the largest e-commerce shipper.
In his tweets and statements criticizing Amazon, Trump has often tied the company to The Washington Post; the newspaper is owned by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. Though the Post, owned by Bezos personally, and Amazon, a publicly traded company, operate independently, Trump attacks both. He often derides the paper as fake news and [accuses Bezos](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/889675644396867584) of using it “as a lobbyist weapon against Congress to keep politicians from looking into Amazon no-tax policy.”
JD Durkin, Cheddar’s Washington bureau chief, explains Trump’s feud with Amazon and how it affects the USPS.
Nvidia on Wednesday became the first public company to reach a market capitalization of $5 trillion. The ravenous appetite for the Silicon Valley company’s chips is the main reason that the company’s stock price has increased so rapidly since early 2023.
Chris Williamson, Chief Business Economist at S&P Global, breaks down September’s CPI print and inflation trends, explaining what it means for markets.
A big-screen adaptation of the anime “Chainsaw Man” has topped the North American box office, beating a Springsteen biopic and “Black Phone 2.” The movie earned $17.25 million in the U.S. and Canada this weekend. “Black Phone 2” fell to second place with $13 million. Two new releases, the rom-com “Regretting You” and “Springsteen — Deliver Me From Nowhere,” earned $12.85 million and $9.1 million, respectively. “Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc” is based on the manga series about a demon hunter. It's another win for Sony-owned Crunchyroll, which also released a “Demon Slayer” film last month that debuted to a record $70 million.
The Federal Aviation Administration says flights departing for Los Angeles International Airport were halted briefly due to a staffing shortage at a Southern California air traffic facility. The FAA issued a temporary ground stop at one of the world’s busiest airports on Sunday morning soon after U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy predicted that travelers would see more flights delayed as the nation’s air traffic controllers work without pay during the federal government shutdown. The hold on planes taking off for LAX lasted an hour and 45 minutes and didn't appear to cause continued problems. The FAA said staffing shortages also delayed planes headed to Washington, Chicago and Newark, New Jersey on Sunday.
