Trump vs. Amazon: New Report Sheds Light On Possible Attempts To Deny Tech Giant Of $10 Billion Defense Contract

Documents uncovered Friday by CNN revealed that tech giant Oracle and White House officials may have attempted to seize on President Trump's disdain for Amazon by making new efforts to re-enter bidding on a $10 billion contract with the Department of Defense (DOD) that Amazon is widely favored to win.

Microsoft and Amazon are reportedly the finalists for a contract that would supply the Pentagon with cloud services for the next 10 years, a deal called the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI). Oracle was no longer in contention to win the bid but the report may mean it could be back in the mix.

"Trump wants to scuttle this process and possibly reopen it back up again with extra guardrails," reported CNN, citing a source close to the White House.

CNN also reported that the document that reached Trump's desk has a chart entitled "A Conspiracy to Create a Ten Year DoD Cloud Monopoly" which seemingly suggests Oracle and White House officials believe that former defense secretaries, along with officials tied to Amazon, have a hidden and coordinated agenda to ensure the industry giant wins JEDI.

Kenneth Glueck, an executive vice president at Oracle and its top Capitol Hill lobbyist, reportedly told CNN that the document is similar to one he created.

Trump has recently made public statements about JEDI, the Defense Department and Amazon.

"I'm getting tremendous complaints about the contract from the Pentagon and Amazon," Trump said earlier this month. "They're saying it wasn't competitively bid. This is going on for a long time, I guess probably before this administration. And we're looking at it every very seriously. It's a very big contract, one of the biggest ever given."

Republican Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin are two members of Congress who have expressed concerns about the JEDI bidding process. Rubio has urged that the Defense Department to delay the JEDI contract until an inspector general report is released that shows if DOD employees working on the contract had done undisclosed work with private companies.

The contract is expected to be awarded in late August.

Trump has frequently been critical of Amazon. He has accused the e-commerce company of scamming the U.S. Postal Service and of not paying state and local taxes.

"I have stated my concerns with Amazon long before the election," Trump tweeted in March. "Unlike others, they pay little to no taxes to state & local governments, use our postal service as their delivery boy (causing tremendous loss for the U.S.), and are putting many thousands of retailers out of business."

Trump also dislikes the Washington Post, which is owned by Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos. The Washington Post's critical reporting on Trump has made him call the outlet "fake news" and he has suggested the media company register itself as a lobbying firm.