Jeff Bezos Reportedly Told Trump The Washington Post Was His “Worst Investment.”

According to a forthcoming book by two New York Times reporters, the owner of The Washington Post sat across from Donald Trump (R) at a December 2024 dinner and delivered a verdict no editor wants to hear from the person who signs the checks. Jeff Bezos, the book reports, called the paper he bought in 2013 his “worst investment” and said the people who work there are “terrible.”

The claim appears in “Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump,” by Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman, set for release June 23, 2026. Per the book’s account, Bezos’s frustration was aimed at the paper’s business side after the Post lost more than $100,000,000that year — “They don’t listen,” he reportedly said. “My other companies, they listen.”

One caution belongs up front. These quotes come from a forthcoming book’s reporting of a private dinner, attributed to the authors’ sourcing rather than a transcript or an on-record statement. We report them as exactly that — reported, not confirmed verbatim. What is not in dispute is what happened next: roughly fourteen months later, the Post laid off about a third of its newsroom.

• $100,000,000+ — the reported annual loss at The Washington Post that Bezos was reportedly venting about at the December 2024 dinner · Source: Fox News; Gizmodo; the Swan/Haberman book
• ~one-third — of the Post's staff cut in February 2026, eliminating the sports section, books coverage, and several foreign bureaus · Source: Daily Caller; Townhall
• Dec. 2024 — the dinner at which Bezos reportedly called the Post his 'worst investment' and its people 'terrible' — per the forthcoming book · Source: Fox News; Yahoo Finance
• CEO out — former publisher and CEO Will Lewis stepped down days after the layoffs · Source: Legal Insurrection; Townhall
• 2013 — the year Bezos bought the Post for $250 million — the paper he reportedly now ranks as his worst purchase · Source: Hannity.com; Mediaite

By the book’s account, the dinner came in December 2024, after the election and before the inauguration — a window in which several tech and media figures sought audiences with the President-elect. Bezos, the authors report, did not defend the paper that carries the slogan “Democracy Dies in Darkness.” He reportedly told Trump it was his “worst investment,” that the people there are “terrible,” that they “don’t listen,” and that his other companies do. Trump, for his part, reportedly used the moment to complain: “This Washington Post is really unfair. You’ve got to take better care.”

“The people there are terrible. They don't listen. My other companies, they listen.”

Jeff Bezos, as reported in 'Regime Change' by Jonathan Swan & Maggie Haberman

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Bezos’s ire, per the book, was aimed at the business side — and the numbers give the grievance a shape. The Post reportedly lost more than $100,000,000 in 2024, a figure that turned a prestige purchase into a recurring drain. Bezos bought the paper in 2013 for $250,000,000; by this telling, a decade later he was describing it to the incoming President as the worst money he had ever spent. For a man whose other ventures — Amazon, Blue Origin — obey his direction, a newsroom that “doesn’t listen” reads, in his framing, as the problem rather than the point of an independent press.

Whatever was said at the dinner, the consequence is on the public record. In February 2026 the Post cut about a third of its staff, eliminating its sports section, its books coverage, and several foreign bureaus. Within days, former publisher and CEO Will Lewis stepped down. A paper that had spent the Trump years branding itself as a watchdog of the presidency emerged from the cuts smaller, narrower, and visibly diminished — and the owner who authorized the reduction had, per the book, privately written off its staff more than a year earlier.

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The irony at the center of this story is structural. The Washington Post built a brand — “Democracy Dies in Darkness” — on the premise of holding power to account, and much of that brand was aimed at Trump. Yet by the book’s telling, the man who owns the paper sat with Trump and disparaged the very journalists doing that work, while Trump pressed him to “take better care.” Former executive editor Marty Baron has publicly argued that Bezos’s later choices at the paper were shaped by a fear of reprisals from Trump. The owner’s private verdict and the paper’s public posture point in opposite directions.

Trump’s side of the exchange fits a pattern he has aired publicly for years — that the Post is “unfair” and that Bezos should rein it in. On Truth Social, Trump has long cast the paper as “fake news” and tied it to Bezos personally. The dinner, as the book describes it, was less a clash than a meeting of grievances: the President-elect wanting friendlier coverage, the owner unhappy with the money. We present the Truth Social lines below as paraphrased commentary capturing Trump’s recurring themes, not as verbatim posts.

Strip away the gossip and a hard accountability story remains. A billionaire bought a legacy newspaper, watched it lose more than $100,000,000a year, told the incoming President in private that it was his worst purchase and its staff were “terrible,” and then — per the public record — cut a third of that staff and closed whole sections. The dinner quotes are reported by a forthcoming book and should be read as attributed reporting, not a transcript. The layoffs, the shuttered desks, and the CEO’s exit are not in question. When the owner’s own verdict and a watchdog paper’s self-image point in opposite directions, the gap is itself the story — and readers are entitled to see it. We will update this page once the book is released and any of the principals respond on the record.

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Last updated June 20, 2026