- Jeff Bezos has taken to Instagram to vent following a Washington Post interview with White House trade adviser Peter Navarro.
- In the interview, Navarro said Bezos told him at a recent party that they would meet, and has since dodged him.
- But the exchange at the party and the Post report appears to have bothered Bezos enough for him to respond on his personal Instagram account.
- “Let’s say you’re at a big cocktail party and someone you don’t know comes up to you while you’re talking to your dad and girlfriend and asks for a meeting,” Bezos wrote.
- He then offered a multiple choice quiz of the best way to respond, and promised a “Serenity Now!” button from “Seinfeld” for the best response.
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Jeff Bezos appears to be fed up, and in a rare move, he’s taken to social media to vent.
The Amazon CEO on Thursday posted an Instagram photo with a caption that appears to call out White House trade adviser Peter Navarro. The Washington Post published a story on Thursday morning featuring an interview with Navarro, in which he accused Bezos of dodging a conversation about Amazon’s ongoing issue with counterfeit goods.
In the interview, Navarro described seeing Bezos last month at a dinner in Washington, DC, hosted by the Alfafa Club, an exclusive social club for politicians and executives. According to the Post, Navarro had been seeking a meeting with Bezos and decided to approach him to press for it. Bezos reportedly told Navarro to call Jay Carney, Amazon’s senior vice president of global corporate affairs, who would set up a meeting.
Since the conversation, Amazon has offered to have senior Amazon executives meet with Navarro – and not Bezos himself – according to the Post.
The entire situation, from the conversation at the dinner to the Post's report, appears to have rankled Bezos, who wrote this on Instagram:
"Let's say you're at a big cocktail party and someone you don't know comes up to you while you're talking to your dad and girlfriend and asks for a meeting. Let's say this person is the kind of person who actually uses the word 'minions' to describe the people who work for you," Bezos wrote.
He went on to offer five multiple choice options for how to respond: "A) Yes, I'll definitely meet with you. B) No, I won't meet with you. C) Tell you what. Call so and so and they'll work something out. D) Quietly resolve to become a shut-in. E) Something else (fill in the blank)" Bezos promised a "Serenity Now!" button from the show "Seinfeld" for "whoever comes up with the best answer."
http://instagr.am/p/B8PVVY4HJh1
An spokeswoman for Amazon said that high-level executives have met with Navarro several times to discuss their "shared goal" of getting counterfeit products off the site.
"Senior Amazon executives have met with administration officials, including Mr. Navarro, on multiple occasions to discuss our shared goal of combatting counterfeit goods," the spokeswoman said in a statement to Business Insider. "We are eager to continue this collaboration and will make our executives available to meet as often as necessary to effectively address this issue."
Bezos rarely, if ever, uses social media to make a statement about news that concerns him. For example, when news broke last month that a forensic investigation of his iPhone had concluded it was hacked by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Bezos responded only with a photo in memory of Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post reporter who as assassinated at the Saudi Arabian consulate.
Otherwise, Bezos typically reserves his social media presence to Amazon news, goofy promotional videos, and his travels abroad - plus the occasional photo with celebrities.