Trump 'goes after' Amazon after spending $150,000 on deliveries during election campaign

A CBS report has found that the Trump election campaign spent $158,498.41 on deliveries from Amazon during the last elections.

The news followed US president Donald Trump's widley-reported criticism recently of the online giant, claiming the company damages the country's national postal service even as it threatens to put thousands of retailers out of business.

CBS looked into records from the Federal Election Commission and found that the president's election campaign used Amazon's services for two years, helping the online retailer in its alleged "fraud" by not paying "real taxes", according to Trump’s statements on social media over the previous week.

According to the broadcaster, the Trump campaign conducted a total of 379 transactions which were catalogued as purchases of office material. Trump has said on numerous occasions that the US postal service loses 1.5 dollars for every package that Amazon delivers.

Trump's vitriol against Amazon was nothing new, with the president having harshly criticised the company on numerous occasions in the past, even before he entered the Oval Office, complaining that the giant run by Jeff Bezos was not being properly taxed.

There has also been talk in the past that the Trump administration might make a push to change the firm’s tax treatment, with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin having said in July that officials might take a position soon on the internet giant's tax collection policy.

In the past, Trump has also targeted Amazon’s chief executive, who is also the owner of the Washington Post, claiming he uses the daily to attack him and other politicians and as a way of exercising power over them in Amazon's benefit.

A report from Axios last week claiming Trump "wants to go after Amazon" saw the company’s shares shed 4.5% of their value.