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By Peter Nicholas and Laura Stevens 

WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump stepped up his attacks on Amazon.com Inc. on Tuesday, saying the company was profiting at the expense of taxpayers and putting traditional retail stores out of business.

Amazon, he wrote in a morning tweet, "should pay these costs (plus) and not have them bourne [sic] by the American taxpayer."

The tweet was the fifth in as many days that Mr. Trump has aimed at Amazon, whose stock has been buffeted by the president's focus.

In his latest tweet, Mr. Trump also targeted the Postal Service over what he said are the multibillion-dollar losses stemming from Amazon deliveries.

"P.O. leaders don't have a clue (or do they?)!" he wrote.

In his tweets, Mr. Trump has invoked many of the same themes: Amazon profits at the expense of the Postal Service and other retailers suffer because of Amazon's enviable market position.

He has also spotlighted the ties between Amazon and the Washington Post. Jeff Bezos, chief executive of the company also owns the Washington Post.

In tweets over the past year he has complained repeatedly about the newspaper's coverage while also suggesting without evidence the Post is a "lobbyist" for Amazon.

An Amazon spokeswoman declined to comment. The U.S. Postal Service also declined to comment.

In remarks Monday, Washington Post Executive Editor Martin Baron said the newspaper operates independently from Amazon and that Mr. Bezos hasn't meddled in the Post's news coverage.

"I can't say more emphatically he's never suggested a story to anybody here, he's never critiqued a story, he's never suppressed a story," Mr. Baron said in an interview with the New York Times.

Amazon's stock price has taken a hit over the past week, hurt by a broader stock-market slump and a news report regarding Mr. Trump's anger with Amazon on Wednesday. Since the market's close a week ago, the company's stock price has fallen 8% as of Tuesday.

In a meeting later Tuesday at the White House with the Baltic States heads of government, Mr. Trump once again attacked Amazon's practices.

"We're giving a subsidy to Amazon," Mr. Trump said. "Take a look at the Post Office. The Post Office is losing billions of dollars. The taxpayers are paying for that money."

The president suggested he would take action to force Amazon to pay higher rates to the Postal Service.

Under law, the U.S. Postal Service must pay its own way. It doesn't receive an annual taxpayer subsidy, but it is reimbursed by Congress for some services such as delivering mail to the blind and overseas voters.

While the U.S. Postal Service does lose billions of dollars annually, much of that is attributable to an unusual requirement to prefund some retiree liabilities, mandated by Congress before the financial crisis. To stay afloat, the agency has defaulted on billions of this prefunding.

The Postal Service also has been hard-hit by a decline in first-class mail, one of its most profitable products. And the service has also used up a $15 billion credit line with the Treasury Department.

Amazon primarily uses the Postal Service for so-called last mile delivery, where they sort and drop off packages at the local post office and the letter carrier brings those to the door. United Parcel Service Inc., FedEx Corp. and a few other companies have similar agreements with the quasigovernmental agency.

The package business has helped bolster the Postal Service's financial strength, according to officials, and the Postal Service is mandated by Congress to charge enough to cover its costs. But some critics have said officials have priced this type of delivery option too low, effectively cross subsidizing package delivery with its mandate to delivery mail to U.S. addresses.

Mr. Trump also lamented Tuesday what he said was Amazon's effect on other businesses. "You have retailers all over the United States are going out of business," he said. "You look at these small towns where they had a beautiful Main Street -- the stores are all gone."

Many smaller retailers shut down years ago before online shopping took off. While larger retailers like Macy's Inc. and Best Buy Co. have recently closed stores, and Toys "R" Us Inc. is preparing to liquidate all of its U.S. stores, it is unclear how much of that might be attributable to Amazon. The online retail giant commands about 43% of U.S. e-commerce spending, but it garners 4% of total retail domestically, according to eMarketer.

White House aides have noted that the president's tweets on the subject have put the White House on the offensive, rather than defending itself against stories including allegations by former adult-film star Stormy Daniels and other women.

In private meetings with friends and aides, Mr. Trump often expresses annoyance with Amazon and what he sees as its exploitative practices, they say. He mentioned Amazon at a small dinner the White House held last week with political allies and aides.

A possible motivation for the Amazon attacks is Mr. Trump's unhappiness over the Washington Post's coverage, one person who talks to him regularly said. "He correlates the two of them together," this person said.

"He's talked about the fact that the Washington Post is solely owned by Jeff Bezos, and he [Mr. Bezos] is using that same entity to take on the president and the administration," this person said.

In past tweets, Mr. Trump has also accused Amazon of not fully paying sales taxes, giving it an unfair advantage over traditional retailers. Amazon has said it collects sales taxes on its own inventory in all 45 states that have such a tax and has voluntarily started collecting taxes in some municipalities.

Policy experts say that any attempt to target Amazon on grounds of anticompetitive behavior would be a long shot.

--Rebecca Ballhaus contributed to this article.

Write to Peter Nicholas at peter.nicholas@wsj.com and Laura Stevens at laura.stevens@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 03, 2018 15:26 ET (19:26 GMT)

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