Amazon would not be the $995 billion company it is today without the US Postal Service, according to CEO Jeff Bezos.
In an interview with the "CBS Evening News" on Monday, Bezos said the Postal Service gave Amazon a huge helping hand from the outset, as the online retailer did not have to invest in a delivery network.
"I didn't have to build a transportation network to deliver the packages," Bezos told Norah O'Donnell. "It existed: It was called the post office."
The comments were designed to contrast with the work Bezos is doing to commercialize space travel. Bezos said he was investing up front to build infrastructure, which should enable future generations to enter the field more easily — a bit like what the Postal Service did for Amazon.
"It takes hundreds of millions of dollars to even just get started with something interesting," Bezos said. "What I want to do is reduce that price of admission with reusable space vehicles so that the next generation you can actually have two kids in a dorm room build a great space company."
But his remarks on the Postal Service risk angering President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly attacked Amazon's use of the service.
On Trump's chosen battleground of Twitter, he has accused the company of abusing its relationship with the Postal Service and calling the service Amazon's "delivery boy," which he said it used at a "fraction of real cost."
"Only fools, or worse, are saying that our money losing Post Office makes money with Amazon," Trump tweeted in April. "THEY LOSE A FORTUNE, and this will be changed. Also, our fully tax paying retailers are closing stores all over the country ... not a level playing field!"
Trump ordered a task force to investigate the matter last year. While it found that the Postal Service had been losing money for more than a decade, it said the commercial package delivery for Amazon and other e-commerce retailers was profitable and not costing the company "massive amounts of money," The New York Times reported.
Now that Amazon is a multibillion-dollar company, it has the financial means to take more control of its logistics network. As a result, it has launched several new delivery services in recent years, such as Amazon Air, and encouraged workers to become delivery drivers.
