Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos says he’s hopeful the incoming Trump administration will fix America’s economy by slashing regulations.
Speaking at the 2024 New York Times DealBook Summit on Wednesday, Bezos revealed he’s excited Trump could nix increasingly burdensome government regulations.
“I’m actually very optimistic this time around. [Trump] seems to have a lot of energy around reducing regulation and from my point of view, if I can help him do that, I’m going to help him because we do have too much regulation in this country,” Bezos said.
NEW: Jeff Bezos says he's 'very optimistic' about the incoming Trump administration, offering to help streamline regulations and dismissing concerns about Elon Musk leveraging government power against competitors.
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"I'm actually very optimistic this time around. He seems to have… pic.twitter.com/0FdTSRFVSc
The Washington Post owner went on to note if Trump was able to grow the economy faster than the national debt, it would help reduce the debt.
“If you look at the…national debt and how gigantic it is as a portion of GDP, these are real long-term problems, and the way you get out of them is by outgrowing them. You’re going…to solve the problem of the national debt by making it a smaller percentage of GDP. Not by shrinking the national debt, but by growing the GDP. You have to grow the denominator, and that means you have to grow GDP at, you know, 3, 4, or 5 percent a year…If you can do that, this is a very manageable problem.”
“So, we need a growth orientation in this country,” Bezos continued. “The most important thing is a growth mindset. And we are the luckiest country in the world. We have all these natural resources, including energy independence.
“We have the best risk capital system in the world…But we are burdened by excessive permitting and regulation. You can’t build a bridge, and we see these examples all the time.”
Bezos went on to say he’s “very optimistic that President Trump is serious about this regulatory agenda, and I think that he has a good chance of succeeding…”
“You’ve probably grown in the last eight years,” Bezos told interviewer Andrew Ross Sorkin. “He has, too. What I’ve seen so far is that he is calmer than he was the first time, more confident, and more settled.”
At the same time, Bezos said he’d work on changing Trump’s mind that the press is the “enemy of the American people.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Bezos discussed his refusal to allow the Washington Post‘s editorial board from endorsing a presidential candidate, saying he was “very proud of the decision.”
Watch the full event below: