this post was submitted on 15 May 2026
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I think he chose to keep himself out of the spotlight. Bunch of Amazon money thrown to the Trump admin though, and some Amazon people in key positions, mostly labor related.
Also as you mentioned, he doesn't really have a lot to win by being friends with Trump, and rather he has a lot to lose by falling out of favor with him (as other billionaires have already). If anything it's pretty smart he keeps a cordial distance from him.
He does come off as one of the smart billionaires but some of these dudes from like Goldman Sachs and Blackrock that went to China with him are not dummies either. It just feels like his absence from practically everything is kinda obvious when you think about it a little. He's really stepped into the background.
It might be a mix of prudence and conceit. He obviously considers himself above everyone else, and that includes Trump, so he doesn't feel he needs to grovel or kiss the ring the way that others do.
It's also that a lot of his empire is based on the last bit of the American economy that's not just people exchanging money back and forth, or some sort of scam. He actually owns and builds infrastructure, and provides necessary services. What could he win by getting closer to Trump that he already doesn't have? He exploits his employees to insane levels, essentially has a monopoly on online shopping and web services, he seems to have a pretty secure position with little room to grow. And the government has largely left Amazon alone even when people have complained.
Idk about the people who went to China with Trump, but if they're bigwigs at investment banking firms, I'm sure there's a bunch of regulations and compliance stuff that he could help them get rid of, so it tracks that otherwise sensible people are now donning the red cap.
This was not a normal visit to China. The real ruling class wants something serious and they all showed up.
I think they can be classified as either hardware companies, banks, tech companies, government contractors, and agroindustry (that one's just Cargill, tho). Banks benefit from a looser regulatory landscape, hardware and tech companies suffer greatly from trade war and chip shortage created by Trump's and China's policies, and Cargill does too, only with a food and seed intellectual property angle.
It is scary snd concerning, don't get me wrong, but it seems to me all of them have an obvious reason to try to get something out of Trump or from a China-friendly Trump. Maybe it's a failure of my imagination, but I don't see why brezls would be in that same club.