WASHINGTON (CN) – President Donald Trump renewed his attacks at online retail giant Amazon Wednesday morning, accusing the company of harming traditional brick-and-mortar retailers and emptying American cities of the jobs they create.
“Amazon is doing great damage to taxpaying retailers. Towns, cities and states throughout the U.S. are being hurt – many jobs being lost!” Trump tweeted just after 6 a.m. Wednesday morning.
Trump has in the past tweeted that Amazon was not paying "Internet taxes." But it's unclear what he meant by that.
Amazon.com collects state sales taxes in all 45 states with a sales tax and the District of Columbia, according to their website.
State governments have sought to capture sales taxes lost to internet retailers, though they have struggled with a 1992 Supreme Court ruling that retailers must have a physical presence in a state before officials can make them collect sales tax.
Amazon and its founder, Jeff Bezos, have been targets of the president's ire in the past. Trump has claimed, for instance, that Bezos, who owns The Washington Post, is using the paper to shield Amazon from tax liabilities.
Before blasting Amazon, Trump took aim at the chief executives who have bailed from his manufacturing council over his responses to the deadly clashes that transpired in Charlottesville, Virginia on Saturday.
“For every CEO that drops out of the Manufacturing Council, I have many to take their place. Grandstanders should not have gone on. JOBS!”
Amazon did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
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