After U.S. President Joe Biden called on companies running gas stations to lower the price of gas, Jeff Bezos accused the U.S. president of misleading the public or said he lacked a "basic" understanding of the forces that actually drive prices.
"Ouch. Inflation is far too important a problem for the White House to keep making statements like this," Bezos said in a tweet Saturday evening.
In the initial tweet, Biden made a direct appeal to gas stations and encouraged them to simply charge less for gasoline.
"My message to the companies running gas stations and setting prices at the pump is simple: this is a time of war and global peril. Bring down the price you are charging at the pump to reflect the cost you’re paying for the product," Biden said Saturday morning.
The president urged compliance, without any hesitation. "And do it now," he ordered.
Bezos said the tweet was very telling to him and may reveal how little Biden knows about the market. "It’s either straight ahead misdirection or a deep misunderstanding of basic market dynamics," Bezos added in his response.
Bezos has emerged as an unlikely critic of the Biden administration as Biden continues to try and pin the blame for record-high gas prices on anything ahead of the midterms election.
Over the past year, Biden has blamed former President Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans, Russia, the coronavirus pandemic, oil production companies, and now even gas stations as gas prices are the highest ever recorded in U.S. history.
Previously, Bezos and the White House feuded over rising inflation, which the White House sought to blame on large companies like Bezos’ Amazon. "They understandably want to muddy the topic," Bezos tweeted in May. "They know inflation hurts the neediest the most. But unions aren’t causing inflation and neither are wealthy people."
