2 Tweets From Bezos on Biden, With One Theme: 'Misdirection'

President Biden is well aware of the nation's current woes around inflation, and he recently pledged to make it his top domestic priority. But his thoughts on how to do so have rankled one of the world's richest men, and that man took to Twitter to tell the president so. The economics-themed tiff started Friday, when Biden offered one suggestion on how to curb price increases, which hit their highest rate in four decades in March, per the Wall Street Journal. "You want to bring down inflation? Let's make sure the wealthiest corporations pay their fair share," he tweeted.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos replied later that evening. "Raising corp taxes is fine to discuss. Taming inflation is critical to discuss. Mushing them together is just misdirection," he tweeted, snarking that Biden's new Disinformation Governance Board should review Biden's post. Bezos followed up that tweet with another on Sunday, in which he replied to another Twitter user's comments on the deficit, insinuating the Democrat-driven American Rescue Plan that Biden signed into law in March was partly to blame, per the Journal. "The administration tried hard to inject even more stimulus into an already over-heated, inflationary economy," he posted. Bezos then praised one Democrat in particular for helping keep things in check by objecting to other spending packages pushed by Biden.

"Only [Sen. Joe] Manchin saved them from themselves," he continued, before echoing a theme in his first tweet: "Inflation is a regressive tax that most hurts the least affluent. Misdirection doesn't help the country." The White House responded Sunday, per Insider. "It doesn't require a huge leap to figure out why one of the wealthiest individuals on Earth opposes an economic agenda for the middle class that cuts some of the biggest costs families face, fights inflation for the long haul, and adds to the historic deficit reduction the President is achieving by asking the richest taxpayers and corporations to pay their fair share," read a statement from a White House spokesman to the Washington Post. The spokesman added that Biden had also recently met with labor organizers, including from Amazon, which may have peeved Bezos more. (Amazon is having a surprisingly tough time.)