Amazon founder Jeff Bezos sent heads spinning after claiming during a CNBC interview that President Donald Trump is a "more mature, more disciplined version of himself than he was in his first term."
Bezos, discussing a man who has attacked voting rights multiple times, previously suggested he might try to stay in office indefinitely, and continued to make erratic (and ironic) statements about presidential candidates needing cognitive exams, told anchor Andrew Ross Sorkin that Trump is much more mellow and calmer than he was during the first Trump administration.
He said:
“I’m comparing him to his first term, and I think he is a more mature, more disciplined version of himself than he was in his first term. Again, I’ve worked with all the presidents, I will work with all the presidents, you know, and I hope to do that going forward if they’ll have me, but we need our business leaders to provide input into the administration, regardless of who the president is.”
“I’m not on the side—you know what, I’m on the side of America, and that is so important. Like, and that’s where business leaders should be. I think we are, but we get perceived as being like, you know, partisan or whatever."
"Like, I was helping Obama every chance I could. I was helping Biden every chance I could. I still call Obama for advice. He’s a very smart guy.”
"Trump has thought some good ideas, and he has done a lot—he’s been right about a lot of things, and you have to give him credit where credit is due.”
You can hear what he said in the video below.
What was Bezos even talking about?
Bezos' remarks are truly something when just weeks ago Trump insisted that God supports his war on Iran and declared—before a provisional ceasefire was announced—that "a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again" ahead of a deadline to bomb Iran’s power plants and bridges that legal scholars and world leaders have said would constitute war crimes.
Just last month, Trump claimed “core strategic objectives are nearing completion” in the Iran war and vowed to strike Iran "extremely hard" over the coming weeks. He said that he would finish the job "very fast," without setting any timeline for ending the war. He pledged to "bring them [Iranians] back to the Stone Ages, where they belong.”
We haven't even gotten into Trump's "policymaking"—or lack thereof.
Trump has never released his tax returns despite pledging to do so. He's claimed for the last 10 years that he and the GOP have been developing a healthcare plan only to default to having "a concept of a plan" when pressed about this during a 2024 debate. He has also promised Americans they will receive "tariff dividends"—and there is no sign of any of that happening.
He has never lowered energy costs or grocery prices like he said he would. He has not released the Epstein files in full despite campaigning on that promise and has done everything he can to distance himself from the scandal despite the fact his own name appears in the files more than 38,000 times.
Trump has said Mexico would pay for his "big beautiful wall" along the southern border (which has never happened). He pledged to end the war in Ukraine (which is still raging) and promised not to lead Americans into more foreign "entanglements"—yet the administration orchestrated a regime change in Venezuela and attacked Iran just weeks later, kicking off a global energy crisis.
Oh, and did we mention that he has repeatedly said the Iran war would close out in just two short weeks? This is coming from a man who loves to give two-week deadlines to just about everything even as he and his administration continue to kick the can further down the road.
None of these are the actions of a more "mature" or "disciplined" man—and Bezos was swiftly called out for his remarks.
Amazon has increasingly aligned itself with Trump through sponsorship of several Trump-linked events, including his inauguration—which Bezos attended—and the proposed White House ballroom project.
No wonder he's trying to gaslight us.
