Jeff Bezos says Trump's meeting with Blue Origin wasn't a “quid pro quo.”

Jeff Bezos says there is “no connection” between The Washington Post's decision not to endorse a presidential candidate and his space company's meeting with former President Donald Trump.

Bezos – the founder Amazon And Blue origin and owner of the Post — published an editorial Monday night about the Post's decision to stem the tide of subscribers canceling their plans. More than as of Monday afternoon 200,000 subscribers canceled their subscription to the Post, which accounts for about 8% of the newspaper's sold circulation, NPR reports.

Aside from the general controversy over a prominent newspaper refusing to endorse a candidate for the first time in nearly four decades, subscribers and online commenters alike were angered by Bezos' alleged involvement in the decision. Additionally, there was the appearance of a settlement, reportedly involving Blue Origin meeting with the former president on the day the publication stated there would be no endorsement.

“I also want to be clear that there is no quid pro quo here,” Bezos wrote, adding that the decision was made entirely internally. “Neither the campaign nor the candidate was consulted or informed at any level or in any way about this decision.”

The world's third richest man said he sighed when he “found out” Blue Origin was CEO Dave Limp had met with Trump and wrote that neither he nor Limp knew about the meeting in advance. According to Bezos, it was planned “quickly that morning.” Trump also met with Megan Mitchell, vice president of government relations at Blue Origin, the Associated Press reported.

Blue Origin has one $3.4 billion contract To build spaceships that would allow astronauts to travel to and from the moon competitive with Elon Musk's SpaceX and the United Launch Alliance for contracts worth up to $5.6 billion in fiscal years 2025 to 2029.

During the Trump administration, Amazon (AMZN+0.13%) sued the federal government after it lost a lucrative contract called JEDI to Microsoft (MSFT+0.26%); That $10 billion deal came later cancelled from the Pentagon in the first months of the Biden administration, which announced a new contract. Amazon had argued that Trump had made “behind-the-scenes attacks” against it, citing his criticism of Bezos and the Post.

The Post's withheld approval was seen as another example of tech executives and billionaires preparing for a possible second Trump administration. Meta (META+0.06%) Mark Zuckerberg, Apple's Tim CookAmazon CEO Andy Jassy and Google (GOOGL+0.88%) CEO Sundar Pichai has everyone allegedly spoken to Trump in the last few weeks or months.

“Every day, somewhere, an Amazon or Blue Origin executive or someone from the other charities and companies I own or invest in meets with government officials,” Bezos wrote. “You can view my wealth and business interests as a bulwark against intimidation, or you can view them as a web of conflicting interests. Only my own principles can make the difference.”