Jeff Bezos scrambles to downplay Trump connection: 'I still call Obama for advice'

Jeff Bezos tried Wednesday to thread a needle that's gotten increasingly hard to thread — insisting he's no Trump lackey while simultaneously heaping praise on the president — and it showed.

In a wide-ranging live interview on CNBC's Squawk Box from the Blue Origin Rocket Factory in Merritt Island, Florida, the Amazon founder and world's second-richest man pushed back on the perception that he's become just another billionaire in Trump's pocket — but his own words complicated the case.

"I'm on the side of America," Bezos told anchor Andrew Ross Sorkin. "I was helping Obama every chance I could. I was helping Biden every chance I could. I still call Obama for advice — he's a very smart guy."

The protestation came as Sorkin pressed Bezos on his evolving relationship with Trump, whom Bezos had once called a "threat to democracy" before executing one of the most dramatic pivots in American business history.

Since Trump's return to the White House, Bezos has donated $1 million to the inaugural fund, sat in the "billionaire row" at the inauguration, dined with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, and paid a reported $40 million for a Melania Trump documentary.

Bezos insisted Wednesday he saw a changed man in Trump — and a better one. "I think he is a more mature, more disciplined version of himself than he was in his first term," he said. "Trump has lots of good ideas. He's been right about a lot of things. You have to give him credit where credit is due."

The balancing act has become harder to pull off in recent months. Last April, Amazon abruptly reversed plans to show customers how much Trump's tariffs were raising prices — after Trump personally called Bezos to complain. The president called Bezos "a good guy" who "solved the problem very quickly." Sen. Elizabeth Warren called it "subservience."