NEW YORK — Amazon founder Jeff Bezos said Wednesday he is “optimistic” about President-elect Donald Trump’s second term and expressed enthusiasm for possible regulatory cuts in the coming years.

“I’m actually very optimistic this time,” Bezos said on stage during a lengthy interview at the New York Times DealBook Summit in New York. “He seems to have a lot of energy to reduce regulation. If I can help him, I’ll help him.”

“We have too many regulations in this country,” Bezos added.

The comments follow Bezos’ decision in October to bar the Washington Post, which he owns, from endorsing a presidential candidate, a move that sparked tens of thousands of people. cancel their subscriptions and protests from journalists with a long history at the newspaper.

At the time, Bezos wrote in an opinion piece in the newspaper that the editorial endorsements created a perception of bias at a time when many Americans do not believe the media and do nothing to tip the balance of opinion. an election.

On Wednesday, he said he would try to dissuade Trump from “getting rid of the idea” that the press is the enemy.

“You’ve probably grown in the last eight years,” he told journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin. “He too. This is not the case. The press is not the enemy.

Trump had denounced Bezos and his companies, including Amazon and the Washington Post, during his first term. In 2019, Amazon argued in court that Trump’s bias against the company was hurting its chances of winning a $10 billion contract with the Pentagon. The Biden administration then entered into a contract with Amazon and Microsoft.

In another part of the interview, Bezos said he did not expect Elon Musk, who has been tasked with cutting regulations during the upcoming Trump term, to use his power to harm its competitors. Bezos owns Blue Origin, a rival to Musk’s SpaceX.