- Amazon advised employees in a memo to avoid talking about President Donald Trump when prompted by reporters.
- It was included in a set of guidelines passed around by Amazon’s public relations team, according to The Information.
- The memo was undated, and it’s unclear how widely it was circulated. It is at least six months old, according to an Amazon representative.
- Amazon has been the target of Trump’s ire multiple times throughout his presidency, much of it focusing on Amazon’s relationship with the US Postal Service and CEO Jeff Bezos’ ownership of the Washington Post.
Amazon has laid out strict guidelines for employees talking to the media about President Donald Trump.
The company advised employees in a memo to avoid talking to the media about the president, and to direct inquires to Amazon’s public relations team if a reporter questioned them. The memo and its contents were reported by The Information’s Priya Anand.
The leaked memo further goes on to give some standard guidelines in the form of “dos” and “don’ts” that employees can use if the interaction is unavoidable in person. The dos include being “friendly and polite” and explaining “that we work well with the White House, as we have with previous administrations,” the Information reported.
The leaked memo says that it is ok to say that the president is “misinformed” about Amazon’s partnership with the post office, and that nothing has changed in Amazon’s approach. It then says to direct the person to Amazon’s PR and “pivot as quickly as possible.”
Some of the don’ts: talk bad about the Trump administration, discuss inner workings in Amazon, speculate, handle anything by yourself, or “panic or make it seem like we have anything to hide.”
The memo was undated, but it is at least six months old, according to an Amazon representative. It is unclear how widely it was circulated.
Trump frequently criticizes Amazon for what he says is an unfair deal with the US Postal Service. When he criticizes the Washington Post’s coverage of his administration, he often refers to the newspaper as the “Amazon Washington Post,” and calls the coverage “unfair.” The Post is owned by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.
Amazon does not frequently respond publicly to even high-profile criticism. A notable exception is when it responded to Sen. Bernie Sanders’ repeated criticism of the company’s working conditions and pay. Amazon pushed back against the senator before eventually raising its starting wage to $15 an hour for US workers.
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