Millions Of Amazon Settlement Checks Credit Trump Ahead Of The Midterms

Millions of Americans are expected to receive a settlement check from Amazon credited to “President Trump’s Federal Trade Commission” in an unprecedented move coming weeks before the midterm elections.

The checks, part of a $2.5 billion settlement Amazon agreed to in 2025 for allegedly deceiving customers into signing up for Prime subscriptions, mark the first time an FTC refund has attributed the payments to a specific president, two former FTC officials told POLITICO. A notice with the checks in question uses the phrase “President Trump’s Federal Trade Commission” three times.

“The enclosed check is the result of a settlement reached by President Trump’s Federal Trade Commission (FTC) with Amazon.com […],” reads the notice for the check, which is issued by Amazon.

The company didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Settlement checks have gone out since last November with the attribution, and a new batch of checks is going out after a federal judge signed an order expanding who’s eligible for a payment, which can be as much as to $200. At least 24.9 million checks have been sent while 7 million were cashed as of September, according to a court filing.

The former FTC officials told POLITICO the language on the checks politicizes a consumer protection agency that’s supposed to be apolitical.

“I am not aware of any pre-Trump instance of the communication to the consumer receiving payment mentioning the name of a president,” Stephen Calkins, a law professor at Wayne State University and a former general counsel at the FTC from 1995 to 1997, told POLITICO. “Making such a claim is unseemly and unfortunate. I regret very much that this once-proud independent agency is now being used to promote the Trump brand.”

While Trump’s name on the checks is not likely to shape voters’ views going into the midterm elections, Bill Kovacic, who chaired the FTC during the George W. Bush administration, said it could potentially affect perceptions of the agency in future cases.

“In one sense, it’s trivial, and who cares? On the other hand, it diminishes the aura of professionalism that is useful to the agency when it performs traditional law enforcement functions,” he said.

Kovacic noted that tying the FTC to the executive office is a new norm set under the Trump administration.

The FTC had largely operated independent of the White House until the Supreme Court this summer expanded the president’s power over such agencies. The agency has frequently described itself as the “Trump-Vance FTC” in its public statements.

“It is settled law that President Trump is the leader of the executive branch and his FTC is responsible for this historic settlement,” an FTC spokesperson said in a statement to POLITICO.

A review of refund checks distributed by the FTC during the current Trump and previous Biden administrations shows the Amazon payouts are the only ones in which a president is credited. That includes settlements with companies including Epic Games, Grubhub, Credit Karma and Walmart.

While Amazon and the FTC reached a settlement last year, critics note the Biden administration filed the lawsuit in 2023 alleging the company deceived users into signing up for Prime subscriptions and made it difficult to cancel automated renewals.