Trump says Amazon, Google, Facebook could face antitrust action
President Trump said he is considering antitrust action against some of the country’s major technology companies – Google, Facebook and Amazon.
During an interview with Axios over the weekend he said that while no final decision has been made, his administration is looking “very seriously” at the possibility.
"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," he said on “Axios on HBO.”
Trump added that he “doesn’t like” that European Union officials are fining Google $5 billion for alleged anticompetitive practices. He said since it’s an American company if anybody should be taking that action it should be the U.S. government.
The United Kingdom has also fined Facebook for hundreds of thousands of dollars for failing to protect user data.
Despite the considerations, Trump said Facebook, Google and Amazon “are great companies” and he wants them to do well.
Shares of the three companies were trading slightly lower at the start of Monday’s session.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AMZN | AMAZON.COM INC. | 176.59 | -2.95 | -1.64% |
| FB | n.a. | n.a. | n.a. | n.a. |
| GOOGL | ALPHABET INC. | 159.13 | +0.87 | +0.55% |
Trump has repeated criticisms of Amazon and CEO Jeff Bezos, accusing the company of dodging “internet taxes,” ripping off the U.S. Postal Service and suggesting it had a “huge” antitrust problem.
"He's using The Washington Post, which is peanuts, he's using that for political purposes to save Amazon in terms of taxes and in terms of antitrust," Trump told Sean Hannity last year.
He also claimed during his campaign that Amazon would have “such problems” if he were elected president.
