Jeff Bezos told President Donald Trump that the Washington Post was his “worst investment” during a December 2024 dinner, according to a forthcoming book by New York Times journalists Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman. The revelation, contained in “Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump,” emerged as the newspaper Bezos acquired for $250 million in 2013 continues to face steep losses and shrinking operations.
“The people there are terrible,” Bezos told Trump, according to an excerpt from the book released ahead of its June 23, 2026 publication date. “They don’t listen. My other companies, they listen.” Bezos focused his criticism on the business side of the publication after the paper lost more than $100 million that year.
Trump, who has long criticized the Post’s coverage, seized on the moment. “This Washington Post is really unfair. You’ve got to take better care,” Trump told Bezos, according to the book. Swan and Haberman wrote that the two billionaires found common ground over their frustrations with the paper, though for different reasons—Trump objected to its editorial coverage while Bezos complained about management’s failure to listen to his direction.
“Bezos commiserated with Trump over their December dinner, indicating that he, too, was deeply frustrated with the Post, though for a different reason,” the authors wrote. The dinner took place as the Post was reeling from its controversial decision to withhold an endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential race, a move that prompted widespread subscriber cancellations and internal backlash.
Bezos purchased the Washington Post from the Graham family in October 2013 for $250 million, initially promising to invest in digital journalism and find innovative ways to make the paper profitable. The acquisition came after the Post had endured years of declining print circulation and advertising revenue. In early years under Bezos’s ownership, the paper saw growth in digital readership and won multiple Pulitzer Prizes, but mounting losses eventually prompted dramatic intervention.
In February 2025, Bezos announced the Post’s opinion section would focus on “personal liberties and free markets,” signaling a shift in editorial direction. Months later, in February 2026, Bezos authorized the largest staff reduction in the paper’s recent history under his ownership. The Post cut more than 300 employees—roughly one-third of its workforce—eliminating its entire sports section, books coverage, and several international bureaus. The layoffs marked the culmination of months of financial pressure and strategic uncertainty at the storied institution.
Swan and Haberman’s book frames Bezos’s candor with Trump as part of a broader effort by technology titans to cultivate relationships with the incoming president following Trump’s 2024 election victory. The authors note that Trump initially believed Bezos personally controlled the Post’s coverage during his first administration, a misconception that fueled years of public conflict between the two billionaires. “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 in an interview for the book. “And then I believed him.”
The Post’s former publisher and CEO Will Lewis departed shortly after the February 2026 layoffs. Jeff D’Onofrio, formerly of CafeMedia and Tumblr, assumed the interim role as CEO and publisher, focusing on new revenue partnerships with technology platforms including OpenAI, Apple News+, and Amazon’s Alexa service.
Sources
- Fox News — Bezos’s December 2024 dinner comments to Trump and book excerpt details
- New York Post — Bezos’s “worst investment” statement and book publication information
- The New York Times — February 2026 layoffs and staff reduction numbers
- Wikipedia — Bezos’s 2013 acquisition of the Washington Post for $250 million
