Jeff Bezos praised Donald Trump after a shooting at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, ending a nearly nine-month hiatus on X.
“Our former President showed incredible grace and courage under real pressure tonight. So grateful for his safety and so heartbroken for the victims and their families,” Bezos wrote on X. The last post he shared on the site was from October 2023.
Big Tech figures were quick to condemn Saturday’s shooting, which killed at least two people, including the shooter.
But Bezos’ words of support are significant given the former president’s long public feud with the Amazon founder.
In 2019, Trump mocked Bezos by calling him “Jeff Bozo,” and appeared to revel in his divorce from MacKenzie Scott. The former president also lashed out at The Washington Post, which Bezos owns.
“I am very sorry to hear about Jeff Bozo being ousted by his competitor, which from the information I have received, is far more accurate than the reporting in his lobbying newspaper, the Amazon Washington Post,” Trump wrote on January 13, 2019. “Hopefully that newspaper will soon be put in better and more responsible hands!”
Amazon acknowledged the public feud in a federal complaint after the company lost a $10 billion Defense Department contract to Microsoft. At the time, the company alleged that Trump’s “repeated public and behind-the-scenes attacks” on Amazon and Bezos were the reason Amazon Web Services lost the valuable contract to its rival.
The Defense Department canceled the contract in 2021 and is working to reach a multi-cloud deal with Amazon and Microsoft.
Andy Jassy, Amazon’s CEO since 2021, also condemned Saturday’s shooting.
“It’s hard to digest what happened in Pennsylvania today. It’s horrific. My thoughts are with the families of the victims. Glad President Trump is safe and hope he recovers quickly,” Jassy wrote on X.
A Trump spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.
