When the President Trump tweets news media has to pay attention and so do the public relations side of companies. The President likes positive news and in his backyard is the Washington Post newspaper. The paper is owned by Jeff Bezos who owns the largest share in Amazon and this year is the world’s richest individual. Mr. Bezos owns the Washington Post through a personal investment and the holding is not part of the Amazon group. However, the President does not really mind because he often tweets about Amazon. In an article by Spencer Soper of Bloomberg News, the President has tweeted about Amazon and its payments to the US Postal Service.

The US Postal Service is an independent organization and its mail rates are set by a commission. This means the President can influence but can not direct the service. It is also true, with more and more people using email, the amount of mail has gone down. While we all like to get mail, most of us consumers do not regularly use it. We pay out bills on line and a host of other things.

In the article, the US Postal Service says in regards to the President’s claim, it is legally prohibited from charging shippers less than its delivery costs. Also, taxpayers do not directly support the Postal Service’s operations.

David Vernon an analyst at Bernstein Research who tracks the shipping industry estimated in 2015 the Postal Service handled 40% of Amazon’s volume. He estimated Amazon paid $2.00 a package which is about half what it would had to pay UPS or FedEx.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, when the President speaks or tweets, organizations have to pay attention to the tweets often to correct the facts. If it relates to their organization it will need to send out press releases in order to get its story in front of the news organizations to be reported. In the meantime, the President may have gone on to a different subject. This aspect of seemingly bouncing between subjects makes President Trump’s term interesting to say the least. In the past, President use to phone corporate President to get their views of the subject and then go to the public in needed.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.