Billionaire investor: Trump asked me if Amazon was a monopoly

President Trump asked a billionaire hedge fund manager multiple times if online retail giant Amazon was considered a monopoly, according to the wealthy investor.

Leon Cooperman, chairman and CEO of the Omega Advisors hedge fund, told CNBC that during a July dinner, Trump asked him about Amazon.

“President Trump asked me twice if I thought Amazon was a monopoly and I said, ‘No, Mr. President,’ ” Cooperman told CNBC. “I think they’ve out-executed people. I think they’ve done a very good job.”

{mosads}The dinner came just weeks after Amazon announced its intention to purchase the grocery store chain Whole Foods for $13.7 billion.

The Federal Trade Commission approved the acquisition in August.

Trump has repeatedly attacked Amazon and its CEO, Jeff Bezos, on Twitter.

Trump accused The Washington Post, which Bezos also owns, of being a “lobbyist weapon” for Amazon to “keep politicians from looking into Amazon no-tax monopoly.”

Is Fake News Washington Post being used as a lobbyist weapon against Congress to keep Politicians from looking into Amazon no-tax monopoly?

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 25, 2017

Contrary to Trump’s tweet, Amazon collects sales taxes in every state with a sales tax, according to a CNN report earlier this year.

In August, Trump tweeted that Amazon “is doing great damage to tax-paying retailers” and alleged that “towns, cities and states … are being hurt” by the online retailer.

Amazon is doing great damage to tax paying retailers. Towns, cities and states throughout the U.S. are being hurt – many jobs being lost!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 16, 2017

Shares of Amazon fell 0.3 percent after Trump’s tweet attacking the company, but began to recover hours later.