Jeff Bezos is “very optimistic” about President-elect Donald Trump’s anti-regulatory agenda and is open to helping him in his second term following the Washington Post owner receiving backlash for his paper’s lack of a presidential endorsement.
Bezos, who owns The Post through his Nash Holdings, spoke with Andrew Ross Sorkin at the annual New York Times DealBook Summit on Wednesday where he said he’s “hopeful” about Trump’s plan to slash regulations in the federal government.
“I’m actually very optimistic this time around. He seems to have a lot of energy around reducing regulation and from my point of view, if I can help him do that, I’m going to help him because we do have too many regulations in this country,” the Amazon CEO told Sorkin.
Bezos argued there needs to be a “growth orientation” by growing the GDP to outpace the country’s massive debt. Bezos’s comments were aired on cable news channels, including CNN, on Thursday morning.
“The most important thing is a growth mindset. And we are the luckiest country in the world. We have all these natural resources, including energy independence,” he said.
Bezos added that he believes Trump has “grown” since his first term and is “calmer” now.
“You’ve probably grown in the last eight years. He has, too. What I&
Bezos received backlash over The Washington Post not making an endorsement in the presidential race, something he defended on Wednesday. Even Trump spun the non-endorsement as a positive for himself. The Post was hit by a wave of subscriber cancellations over the decision.
“I’m proud of the decision we made, and it was far from cowardly because we knew there would be blowback,” he said. “We did the right thing.”
Watch above via CNN.