Jeff Bezos, the billionaire owner of the Washington Post, faced increased criticism over the weekend after executives from his space company, Blue Origin, reportedly met with Donald Trump. The timing of the meeting coincided with the Post’s decision to refrain from endorsing Trump’s Democratic opponent, Kamala Harris, in the November presidential election.
According to the New York Times, Washington Post leaders met with Bezos in Miami in late September to discuss the potential endorsement, which Bezos opposed. On Friday, the Post announced it would not be endorsing any candidate in the 5 November election, a departure from its historical practice. Meanwhile, executives from Blue Origin, including CEO David Limp, briefly met with Trump following a campaign event in Austin, Texas. This was further complicated by reports that Amazon CEO Andy Jassy had reached out to Trump via phone around the same time.
The decision to withhold an endorsement sparked internal and external backlash. Robert Kagan, a senior columnist at the Post, resigned and publicly criticized the timing of the Blue Origin-Trump meeting, suggesting it was part of a broader arrangement. "Trump waited to make sure that Bezos did what he said he was going to do – and then met with the Blue Origin people," Kagan told The Daily Beast, calling the scenario a “quid pro quo.”
In response, Post publisher Will Lewis defended Bezos, claiming the decision to refrain from endorsing Harris was his own. However, the Post faced a wave of subscription cancellations, with critics accusing it of undermining democracy by choosing neutrality on a crucial election.
The paper’s editorial decision stirred discontent among current and former employees, including prominent journalists Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward. Former executive editor Marty Baron labeled the choice "cowardice with democracy as its casualty," while the paper’s cartoon team released a protest image that echoed its slogan, “Democracy Dies in Darkness.”
Among the wave of prominent subscribers canceling their subscriptions were author Stephen King and former congresswoman Liz Cheney. Bezos, who has faced growing scrutiny over his influence on the Post since taking ownership in 2013, defended the paper’s standards and ethics in a memo earlier this year, though this latest decision has only deepened public debate over media independence.
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