US: Trump looking into antitrust violations by Amazon, other tech giants

President Trump is considering antitrust actions against Silicon Valley giants as a means of regulation, he told Axios on HBO in an interview aired Sunday, November 4.

“I do have a lot of people talking about monopoly when they mention those three in particular,” Trump said about Google, Facebook, and Amazon. The president continued, “we are looking at [antitrust] very seriously … Look, that doesn’t mean we’re doing it, but we’re certainly looking and I think most people surmise that, I would imagine.”

Trump said others have also considered action against tech companies but a “previous administration” stopped that. “They were talking about this years ago. You know they were actually talking about this same subject — monopoly.”

The president has repeatedly attacked Amazon, saying that package deliveries by the US Postal Service for Amazon were costing the service money.

Trump has also been critical of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who owns The Washington Post.

Mike Allen, co-founder and executive editor of Axios, told CNBC on Monday he thinks Trump was being serious about this inquiry into big tech.

“The president has been talking about this for a long time,” Allen said in a “Squawk Box” interview. He also mentioned Trump’s “obsession” with Amazon.

Full Content: Axios