J.D. Vance Claims Amazon Funded BLM to ‘Destroy Competitors’—Historian Labels It a ‘Conspiracy Theory
(AP Photo/Jeff Dean, File)
In a provocative speech at a conservative think tank in 2021, J.D. Vance, now Donald Trump’s running mate, accused Amazon of funding Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests with the intent of damaging brick-and-mortar competitors. Vance made these allegations without evidence, suggesting that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos had a financial incentive to encourage the destruction of small businesses during the unrest that followed the police murder of George Floyd, as reported by the Christian Science Monitor.
“Who benefits most when small businesses on Main Street are destroyed?” Vance asked the gathering. “Who wants to see their competitors unable to deliver goods and services to people, so that you get it delivered in your brown Amazon box? Jeff Bezos. The people who are invested in destroying America via our corporate class are also getting rich from it. This is an important piece of the puzzle to understand.”
Vance has positioned himself as a critic of U.S. corporations like Disney and Budweiser, accusing them of promoting “woke” values such as diversity, equity, and inclusion. However, rather than seeing these efforts as merely catering to consumer demands, the “Hillbilly Elegy” author portrayed their motivations as part of a more sinister agenda.
“If you peel back the onion, what you find is that the businesses that are most connected and most devoted to destroying our values are also benefiting financially from it,” Vance told the audience during the event held in suburban Washington, D.C.
Despite these bold claims, the Trump-Vance campaign has not provided any evidence to support Vance’s assertion that Amazon funded violence during the 2020 protests. Much of the violence was later proven in court to have been instigated by white supremacist agitators. When asked to comment on Vance’s remarks, a spokesman for the vice-presidential candidate doubled down on the allegations.
“Jeff Bezos’s companies promoted and donated to Black Lives Matter as BLM protestors destroyed countless brick-and-mortar businesses across the country—the very businesses that Amazon counts as direct competitors,” said Vance’s spokesman William Martin. “Woke billionaires like Bezos have taken over corporations across the country and turned them against the American people. Senator Vance is absolutely right to call them out and will continue to do so.”
Left-leaning historian Thomas Frank, who has written extensively on American populism, noted that while Vance had identified a real phenomenon—the intersection of liberalism and capitalism—he took it to an extreme and unfounded conclusion by accusing Bezos of orchestrating a plot to destroy small businesses.
“This combination of liberalism and capitalism, this does exist, and it’s real,” Frank acknowledged. “[But Vance’s accusation] sounds like a conspiracy theory to me. I would love to see his evidence for that.”
As the campaign continues, Democratic vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz has labeled Vance as “weird,” a characterization that seems to resonate with the public. Critics have questioned the Republican Party’s decision to nominate someone with such controversial and unsupported claims, with national security attorney Bradley Moss pointedly asking, “Did they vet this dude at all?”
