In October 2019, Amazon sued the Pentagon, alleging that President Donald Trump had blocked the company from securing a $10bn cloud-computing contract because of his animus towards The Washington Post and its owner Jeff Bezos — whom the US president derided as “Jeff Bozo”.
At the time, the dispute was just one example of the near-constant skirmishes between Trump’s White House and corporate America. But the episode left an enduring mark on Bezos, the Amazon founder and the world’s second-richest person.
Over the past year, Bezos has executed a sharp public reversal in his relationship with Trump — whom he previously criticised as a “threat to democracy” — that has surprised even longtime associates and has stunned the Post’s newsroom.