NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� Amazon founder Jeff Bezos said Wednesday he is 鈥渙ptimistic鈥� about President-elect Donald Trump鈥檚 second term and expressed some excitement about potential regulatory cutbacks in the coming years.
鈥淚鈥檓 actually very optimistic this time around,鈥� Bezos said on stage during a wide-ranging interview at The New York Times鈥� DealBook Summit in New York. 鈥淗e seems to have a lot of energy around reducing regulation. If I can help do that, I鈥檓 going to help him."
鈥淲e do have too many regulations in this country,鈥� Bezos added.
The comments follow Bezos' October decision to prohibit The Washington Post, which he owns, from endorsing a presidential candidate, a move that led to tens of thousands of people and protests from journalists with a deep history at the newspaper.
At the time, Bezos wrote in an op-ed in the newspaper saying editorial endorsements create a perception of bias at a time when many Americans don鈥檛 believe the media, and do nothing to tip the scales of an election.
On Wednesday, he said he would try to talk Trump "out of the idea鈥� that .
鈥淵ou鈥檝e probably grown in the last eight years,鈥� he said to journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin. 鈥淗e has, too. This is not the case. The press is not the enemy.鈥�
Trump had railed against Bezos and his companies, including Amazon and The Washington Post, during his first term. In 2019, Amazon argued in a court case that Trump鈥檚 bias against the company harmed its chances of winning a $10 billion Pentagon contract. The Biden administration later pursued a contract with both Amazon and Microsoft.
In another part of the interview, Bezos said he doesn't expect Elon Musk, who has been tasked with cutting regulations in the upcoming Trump term, to use his power to Bezos owns Blue Origin, a rival to Musk's SpaceX.
The Associated Press
