President Donald Trump says he dined with Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos Wednesday night hours after the billionaire announced a new editorial policy for the newspaper's opinion section.
In a memo to staff, Bezos declared that the opinion page would focus primarily on two topics going forward.
"We are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets," Bezos said in the Wednesday communication. "We'll cover other topics too, of course, but viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others."
During a Thursday night interview with The Spectator's Ben Domenech, Trump mentioned that he had dinner with the Amazon founder the same night as the opinion page change.
"A lot of the people who played a significant role in that election, and particularly on the tech side of things, have come around to support you," Domenech said.
"Unbelievable. I had dinner with Jeff Bezos last night," Trump replied.
"How much do you trust someone like Jeff Bezos?" Domenech asked.
"Who do I trust? I mean, who do you trust?" Trump said. "Do you trust anybody? These are very smart guys, and I always say to them, we have dinners together, usually started by them. I'm so busy with all of this, between China, Russia, Ukraine, I've got more things happening. But I always love to just sort of look at them and say, 'Hi, where do you come from?' 'I came from Hawaii to have dinner.' … I said, 'Would you have been here if I lost?' You know? 'Would you have been here if I lost it?' They never answer that question. Actually, they just sort of shy away from it."
On Thursday, Axios reported that Bezos began cultivating a relationship with Trump last summer and privately urged the then-candidate to pick then-North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum as his running mate.
Bezos also informed the Post's staff that opinion editor David Shipley had resigned in protest of the editorial change and that he would "be searching for a new opinion editor to own this new direction."
In a separate statement, The Washington Post publisher Will Lewis stressed that the change was "not about siding with any political party" but rather "about being crystal-clear about what we stand for as a newspaper."
Former Post editors slammed the change at the paper, with former senior opinion editor Amanda Katz telling the Independent, "It no longer presents a variety of opinion but a propaganda push to benefit the owner."
Former Executive Editor Marty Baron described the move as a betrayal and told the outlet Bezos "has prioritized those commercial interests over the Post."