A new book by New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan claim that President Donald Trump and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos found common ground over their shared criticism of The Washington Post during a private dinner before Trump began his second term.
The account appears in the reporters’ new book, Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump. Haberman and Swan discussed the reported conversation during an appearance on MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Friday as part of a series of interviews promoting the book.
According to Swan, the discussion took place during a dinner at Mar-a-Lago in December 2024, where Bezos reportedly complained about the newspaper he owns.
Swan said Bezos described The Washington Post’s staff as “terrible,” and said the two men spent part of the dinner “commiserating” over what they viewed as the newspaper’s decline.
Haberman said she was surprised to learn that Trump and Bezos had bonded over their frustrations with the publication.
“It was wild,” Haberman said of discovering that the two men had spent time criticizing the newspaper together.
While noting that Trump and Bezos likely had different motivations for their dissatisfaction, Haberman said they appeared united in their negative assessment of the publication.
“I didn’t realize how Bezos actually felt about the Washington Post as an investment,” Haberman said. “This is a storied newspaper that, you know, helped bring down Richard Nixon, and Bezos is describing it to Trump over an intimate dinner during the transition as his ‘worst financial investment ever.’”
According to the reporters, Bezos has become increasingly public in recent years about wanting to reshape the direction of the newspaper.
Early in 2025, Bezos revamped the opinion section, saying it would focus on “two pillars: personal liberties and free markets.”
The book discussion also touched on reported frustration Bezos had with then-Washington Post CEO Will Lewis. According to the article, Bezos was upset after Lewis was seen socializing in San Francisco during Super Bowl Week while the newspaper was simultaneously laying off hundreds of employees. Lewis later departed the publication.
Haberman and Swan said the Mar-a-Lago dinner was only one example of Trump’s interactions with prominent technology executives during the presidential transition.
According to the reporters, there were also occasions when Trump privately mocked Bezos as well as Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, despite the cordial dinner described in the book.
Swan said Trump joked about the executives “sucking up” to him, even after the reported conversation in which he and Bezos criticized The Washington Post together.
The reporters also said Tesla CEO Elon Musk found amusement in those interactions.
According to Swan, Musk particularly enjoyed what he described as the “first class groveling” from competing technology executives.
Haberman and Swan are currently promoting Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump through a series of media appearances, with their Morning Joe interview highlighting the reported behind-the-scenes conversation between Trump and Bezos as well as other interactions involving some of the country’s most prominent business leaders during the presidential transition.
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