Amazon founder Jeff Bezos called the Washington Post his “worst investment” during a December 2024 dinner with then-President-elect Donald Trump, according to a forthcoming book by New York Times journalists Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman. “The people there are terrible,” Bezos told Trump, the authors report in “Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump,” set for release on June 23, 2026.
Bezos elaborated on his frustrations with the newspaper’s business side after the Post lost more than $100 million that year. “They don’t listen. My other companies, they listen,” he said, contrasting the publication with his other business ventures.
The candid remarks reveal the billionaire’s deep dissatisfaction with the Washington Post just months before he authorized sweeping cuts to the newsroom. In February 2026, Bezos ordered the elimination of roughly one-third of the newspaper’s workforce, cutting the sports section, all staff photographers, and several foreign bureaus. The layoffs followed months of subscriber cancellations triggered by the Post’s decision to withhold its 2024 presidential endorsement—a move Bezos defended in an October 2024 opinion piece, arguing that presidential endorsements damage media credibility.
Trump, who had long criticized the Post’s coverage of him, complained directly to Bezos during the dinner. “This Washington Post is really unfair. You’ve got to take better care,” Trump told him, according to the book. Swan and Haberman note that while both men were frustrated with the paper, their grievances differed: Trump objected to what he saw as biased reporting, while Bezos was troubled by the newspaper’s financial performance and what he viewed as insubordinate staff.
The Amazon founder purchased the Washington Post for $250 million in 2013 from the Graham family, promising at the time to invest in the institution’s future. For years, the paper benefited from his financial backing and expanded its digital presence. But mounting losses—$77 million in 2023 and roughly $100 million in 2024—prompted a shift in Bezos’s approach. In February 2025, he instructed the Post’s opinion section to focus exclusively on “personal liberties and free markets,” a directive that prompted the resignation of opinion editor David Shipley.
According to Swan and Haberman’s account, Trump told the authors that Bezos claimed the Post investment had cost him friendships. However, the authors note that Bezos later disputed this characterization, saying that people close to him had urged him to sell the newspaper rather than that he had actually lost friends over the purchase.
The book reveals Bezos’s effort to align himself with Trump as the president prepared for his second term, part of a broader campaign by Big Tech leaders to cultivate favor with the incoming administration. Trump himself acknowledged in an interview for the book that he had once blamed Bezos for the Post’s coverage, believing the billionaire controlled editorial decisions. “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. “And then I believed him.”
A Washington Post spokesperson declined to comment on the book’s revelations. Will Lewis, the newspaper’s publisher and CEO at the time of the layoffs, departed shortly after the cuts amid criticism over his conduct at a Super Bowl event. Jeff D’Onofrio, the Post’s chief financial officer, was named interim CEO and has since approved new content and licensing deals with OpenAI, Apple News+, and Alexa+ to generate additional revenue.
Sources
- New York Post — Bezos’s December 2024 dinner remarks to Trump about the Washington Post being his worst investment, details from “Regime Change” book excerpt.
- Fox News — Confirmation of Bezos’s comments to Trump and the book’s December 2024 dinner account.
- Wall Street Journal — Washington Post financial losses exceeding $100 million in 2024 and 2025.
- Simon & Schuster — Publication details and description of “Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump” by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, June 23, 2026 release date.
- The New Yorker — Washington Post losses of $77 million in 2023 and $100 million in 2024; details on Bezos-era changes and layoffs.
- The Washington Post — Original 2013 purchase announcement; Bezos’s October 2024 opinion piece on presidential endorsements.
