Amazon's Other Jeff

Jeff Wilke, Bezos’ No. 2, talks AI plans and says his delivery business has plenty of ways to work around Trump.

- Brad Stone and Spencer Soper

Donald Trump has hammered Amazon.com Inc.’s share price in recent weeks by trying to pick fights online with Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos. But the actual object of his Twitter onslaught is the domain of Jeff Wilke, Bezos’ right-hand man for most of the past 18 years. Wilke runs Amazon’s worldwide consumer division, meaning he’s in charge of both selling people stuff and figuring out how to deliver the items as efficiently as possible. Often, the company uses the U.S. Postal Service. That’s an arrangement Trump has repeatedly threatened to hamper, arguing that it’s ruinously unprofitable for taxpayers.

In Amazon’s first public response to the president’s criticism, Wilke says the business has been a win-win. “We’ve been around through four presidents and leadership changes all over the world,” he says. “For more than two decades, we’ve worked with the post office to invent and deliver for customers and business all over the U.S. profitably, creating a bunch of jobs in the process. It’s been a terrific partnership, and I hope it will remain so.”