Donald Trump book reveals Jeff Bezos' 'worst' investment as Amazon boss slips down world's rich list
A new book about President Donald Trump has revealed what Jeff Bezos’ ‘worst’ investment was.
This comes as the Amazon boss, who has become a billionaire through his ventures, slips down the world’s rich list.
The book, which is titled Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump, details numerous comments reportedly made by Bezos during a private dinner back in December 2024.
This includes a brutal assessment he allegedly made about employees at The Washington Post just weeks before significant job cuts were made at the newspaper, which Bezos purchased back in 2013.
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Bezos reportedly told Trump that the staff were ‘terrible’, but this isn’t the only revelation made in the book by journalists Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman.
The billionaire reportedly went further to say that buying the newspaper was the worst investment he had ever made.
According to the book, Trump told Bezos: “This Washington Post is really unfair. You’ve got to take better care.”
The authors wrote: “Bezos commiserated with Trump over their December dinner, indicating that he, too, was deeply frustrated with the Post, though for a different reason.
“In Trump’s telling, Bezos told him he had lost half his friends over the investment. Bezos would tell others that wasn’t quite right: He hadn’t lost friends, but people close to him had urged him to sell the newspaper.”
In an interview for the book, Trump said that he ‘hated’ Bezos during his first term in office, because he believed at the time that he was in control of what the Post wrote.
Trump explained: “He said they write stories about him. And I didn’t believe him the first time, first term. And I hated him for it. And then I believed him.”
During the conversation, Bezos allegedly said: “The people there are terrible. They don’t listen. My other companies, they listen.”
The Washington Post has faced financial difficulties in recent years, with reports indicating that the publication lost a whopping $100 million during 2024.
Its billionaire owner has previously pointed to those losses as a key reason behind restructuring efforts and workforce reductions, however, the new book suggests the situation may have been more personal motives behind the move.
According to Swan and Haberman, Bezos claimed the investment had cost him relationships with people in his social circle. However, he later disputed this claim.
Speaking to the California Post, the authors explained: “In Trump’s telling, Bezos told him he had lost half his friends over the investment. Bezos would tell others that wasn’t quite right: He hadn’t lost friends, but people close to him had urged him to sell the newspaper.”
The book is due to be released on Tuesday (June 23).