‘Apologize for untruth!’ Trump’s year of feuds with corporations

In addition to feuding with the news media, President Donald Trump has often lashed out at major corporations during the first tumultuous year of his mandate, causing stocks to rise or fall with only a tweet or two.

Amazon

On Friday, Trump tweeted that the e-commerce giant Amazon.com was unfairly benefitting from its deal with the US Postal Service.

“Why is the United States Post Office, which is losing many billions of dollars a year, while charging Amazon and others so little to deliver their packages, making Amazon richer and the Post Office dumber and poorer? Should be charging MUCH MORE!” Trump tweeted.

Trump’s feud with Amazon could be related to the near-constant stream of factually-challenged articles alleging Trump colluded with Russia to defeat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election in the Washington Post, owned by Amazon tycoon Jeff Bezos.

In August, Trump said Amazon is doing “great damage to tax paying retailers,” and that “towns, cities and states throughout the U.S. are being hurt — many jobs being lost!” He has accused the Washington Post of being a “lobbyist” for the Amazon.

Amazon is far from the only corporation Trump has launched public attacks on, however.

Lockheed Martin

Just weeks after his inauguration, Trump set his sights on weapons company Lockheed Martin, sending its stocks tumbling.

Trump tweeted the cost of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program is “out of control” and “billions of dollars can and will be saved.” Trump asked Lockheed Martin’s competitor Boeing to offer a price for its comparable warplane, the F-18 Super Hornet, driving Boeing stocks up. After meeting with Trump, Lockheed Martin’s president announced a lower price and promised to add thousands of jobs in the US.

Nordstrom

In February, department store chain Nordstrom decided to stop selling products from the fashion line by the president’s daughter Ivanka Trump. The retailer cited the brand's declining sales as the reason, but the White House saw it as an action against the president and his administration.

Trump criticized the retailer on Twitter, saying “my daughter Ivanka has always been treated so unfairly by Nordstrom.”

The company stuck to its decision, however, and Ivanka moved her fashion line elsewhere.

Facebook

In September, amid probes into alleged Russian interference in the election, Trump tweeted that Facebook was always “anti-Trump” and listed the social media giant alongside “Fake News Media ‘screaming’ for Crooked Hillary Clinton."

"Trump says Facebook is against him. Liberals say we helped Trump," Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement, adding that in his opinion Facebook served as a space for “billions of interactions discussing the issues” and allowing candidates to communicate “directly with tens of millions of followers every day.”

NFL & ESPN

Another favorite target of the president was the National Football League. After numerous players kneeled down during the national anthem, Trump lashed out during an appearance in Alabama.

“Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now. Out! He’s fired. He’s fired!’” Trump told a cheering crowd.

During a match between the Indianapolis Colts and the San Francisco 49ers, Vice President Mike Pence walked out of the stadium after nearly 20 players knelt down during the anthem. A day later, Trump questioned tax breaks that the NFL enjoys. “Why is the NFL getting massive tax breaks while at the same time disrespecting our Anthem, Flag and Country? Change tax law!” he wrote.

Trump also took aim at the sports network ESPN, whose journalist Jemele Hill was suspended after calling him a “white supremacist.” Trump continued to criticize ESPN, demanding the network “apologize for untruth!”