Trump could cure cancer, establish world peace, end poverty, and make reheated French fries taste good — none of it would win over any of his haters.
He’s gotten no credit from Democrats for stopping nearly all illegal crossings at our Southern border, a goal his predecessor seemed to regard as desirable but impossible.
He’s unlikely to win the Nobel Peace Prize despite midwifing the Abraham Accords during his first term and helping negotiate peace deals between Cambodia and Thailand, Azerbaijan and Armenia, and India and Pakistan during his second.
And now, they’re criticizing his Federal Trade Commission for taking historic action against Amazon, arguing that the administration doesn’t go far enough.
On Thursday, the FTC announced that it had reached a $2.5 billion settlement in a Biden-era case that accused the e-commerce giant of tricking customers into signing up for Amazon Prime and making it excessively difficult to cancel their subscriptions.
“Amazon will be required to pay a $1 billion civil penalty, provide $1.5 billion in refunds back to consumers harmed by their deceptive Prime enrollment practices, and cease unlawful enrollment and cancellation practices for Prime,” an FTC press release reads.
By any metric, this settlement is a milestone. The civil penalty is one of the largest in FTC history and will make 35 million Amazon users whole. The settlement even provides for third-party monitoring — at Amazon’s expense — to make sure the company sticks to the agreement.
You’d think Democrats would offer Trump some qualified praise. A Republican-run FTC just forced the world’s fourth-largest company (which also engages in egregious union-busting and effectively makes its delivery drivers urinate in bottles) to pay up and stop lying.
That same administration is also aggressively pursuing two antitrust cases against Google — one that originated under Biden and one that advanced significantly during his term.
Democrats could take this as a sign that the GOP is done blindly deferring to corporate interests and that bipartisan cooperation is possible on issues like consumer protection and antitrust.
Instead, they’ve let Trump Derangement Syndrome dictate their response.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) called the record-breaking penalty “a slap on the wrist.”
Four progressive House members, including “Squad” member Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), declared that the settlement “falls far short of the systemic change we need.” Specifically, they want to bring back Biden’s “click to cancel” rule, a one-size-fits-all solution that robbed customers of leverage in their negotiations with subscription services.
Former FTC Chair Lina Khan, who oversaw the initial complaint against Amazon in 2023, posted that $2.5 billion was “a drop in the bucket.”
The American Economic Liberties Project (AELP), a left-wing think tank that occasionally cozies up to populist Republicans, issued a press release claiming that the settlement “let Amazon executives walk away scot-free.”
That’s laughable. AELP knows full well that a $2.5 billion penalty plus independent oversight is one of the most aggressive enforcement wins in FTC history. But honesty doesn’t raise their profile — so they are downplaying Trump’s victory and keep begging donors for more cash to “fight corporate power.
These omissions aren’t just misleading. They’re dishonest.
So why would Warren, Jayapal, Khan, AELP, and others downplay this historic enforcement win?
Because it doesn’t fit their narrative. Their mission isn’t to protect consumers; it’s to keep the outrage machine churning and the donor dollars flowing.
And the best way to do that is to stoke their supporters’ unquenchable hatred of Trump, even when he’s doing something Democrats ought to applaud.
Judson Phillips is the founder of Tea Party Nation.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
(Featured Image Media Credit: Elizabeth Warren/Gage Skidmore/Flickr)
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