“Swallow the tariffs”: Walmart and Amazon are under pressure from the Trump administration over price increases

US PresidentDonald Trump (78) and his administration are determined to prevent their tariffs from impacting US consumers in the form of higher prices. They are putting pressure on major retailers like Walmart and Amazon to "swallow" the tariffs, meaning not to pass them on to consumers and thus accept a lower profit margin. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (65) told NBC on Sunday that he had spoken with Doug McMillon, CEO of the world's largest retailer, Walmart.

"Walmart will indeed absorb part of the tariffs," Bessent said after the meeting. However, he emphasized that he "did not exert any pressure." Walmart, the world's largest retailer , declined to comment.

On Saturday, Trump himself wrote on his Truth Social platform that Walmart should stop citing tariffs as a reason for price increases . The company earned billions of dollars last year, far more than expected. In trade with China , he said, Walmart should not pass on the tariffs ("eat the tariffs") "and charge its valued customers NOTHING."

Walmart had already warned last week of a possible price increase due to Trump's tariff policy. "We will do our best to keep our prices as low as possible," CEO McMillon explained. However, given the tariffs, Walmart, as the largest importer of containerized goods, would not be able to absorb the entire pressure because retail profit margins are very slim.

Last year, the US company generated a profit of around 15.5 billion dollars on sales of around 648 billion dollars, is active in numerous countries and has a total of more than two million employees.

In response to Trump's criticism, Walmart said the company has "always worked to keep its prices as low as possible" and that it will continue to do so. "We will keep prices as low as we can, for as long as we can, given the reality of tight retail margins."

Economists have repeatedly stated that it is likely that Trump's higher tariffs on imports into the US will also make products more expensive for US consumers.

At the end of April, the online retailer Amazon was sharply criticized by the White House for its tariff considerations. The website "Punchbowl" reported at the time that Amazon wanted to list the percentage of the price of each item that was attributable to the tariffs imposed by Trump. Trump spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt (35) responded by stating that Trump viewed this as a "hostile political act."

US government sources later reported that Trump called Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos (61) to complain. Trump himself later said that Bezos had quickly resolved "the problem" and done "the right thing."

Amazon itself denied the Punchbowl report following the criticism. It stated that the Amazon Haul division, which specializes in discounted products, had toyed with the idea of ​​disclosing customs fees, but that such considerations had never been made for the main website. In a second statement shortly thereafter, it stated that the idea had not been approved and would never have happened.