In 2019, Trump found his lever. Amazon was due to receive a $10 billion cloud-computing contract from the Pentagon. The Pentagon suddenly shifted course and denied Amazon the contract. A former speechwriter for Defense Secretary James Mattis reported that Trump had directed Mattis to “screw Amazon.”

In his editorial, Lewis cited the Post’s decision not to publish an endorsement in the race between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon in 1960. Nixon would later be implicated in the Watergate scandal, which generated 69 indictments and 48 criminal convictions in one of the biggest political corruption scandals in American history..

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has blocked the Washington Post from endorsing a candidate for president, the first time it has not done so in 36 years.