Jeff Bezos Boycotted As Mayhem Unfolds Before the Met Gala

Summary

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IHIP News Podcast – Episode Summary

Episode: Jeff Bezos Boycotted As Mayhem Unfolds Before the Met Gala

Hosts: Jennifer Welch & Angie “Pumps” Sullivan (with producer Kylie and Ryan)
Date: May 4, 2026

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Overview

In this particularly charged episode, Jennifer Welch and the IHIP News crew delve into the controversy surrounding Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez's $10 million sponsorship of the 2026 Met Gala. The episode captures the hosts’ outrage and skepticism toward billionaire influence in cultural spaces, especially given Amazon’s ongoing labor issues and its ties to the Trump administration. The crew details the resulting celebrity boycott, discusses wealth inequality, the moral burden of collaboration with fascist-leaning figures, and spotlights ongoing crises for workers and women’s rights, especially in conservative states. The tone is fiercely progressive, personal, and caustically funny in parts—a no-holds-barred take on money, politics, labor, and justice at the intersection of culture and current events.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Billionaire Sponsorship and Celebrity Boycott (01:26 - 05:32)

• Bezos & Sanchez as Met Gala Sponsors

  • Jennifer outlines fury over Bezos and Sanchez paying $10 million to sponsor the Met Gala, noting that it’s the first time a billionaire couple has replaced a fashion house as lead sponsor.

    “They are basically buying their way into this inner circle. ... I think what disgusts me so much are the people who are still going to go...” – Jennifer (03:19)

  • Hollywood backlash: A-listers like Bella Hadid, Zendaya, and Meryl Streep are among those boycotting.

• Linking Wealth Inequality and Political Power

  • Amazon recently laid off 14,000 workers while experiencing record profits.
  • Jennifer draws a clear line between Bezos’s growing wealth and his support of Trump-era policies, arguing this is “fascist collaboration.”
  • “Any celebrity that goes, in my opinion, it is an active endorsement of MAGA and Trumpism.” – Jennifer (03:19)

2. The Ethics of Attending the Gala (02:52 - 05:40)

• Team consensus: Even if invited, none would attend the event in protest.
• Kylie compares passive participation to failing to call out racism: “It’s not enough to not be racist. You have to be anti-racist and call it out.” (04:24)
• Ryan and Jennifer note that attendance is akin to tacitly condoning the current regime and the labor abuses enabled by Amazon’s profits.

3. Labor Conditions and Worker Voices (05:32 - 08:37)

• Worker Testimony: Clip from Mary Hill, a 72-year-old Amazon warehouse worker, calling out Bezos.

  “When we struggle from paycheck to paycheck... if it weren’t for every [worker] in every Amazon facility, he wouldn’t have all those zeros behind his neck.” – Mary Hill (06:07)

• Jennifer reinforces: “The people that need to be being celebrated at the Met Gala are the workers.” (06:34)
• Discussion of Amazon’s union-busting, bathroom break scandals, and the extreme disparities between Bezos’s wealth and worker wages.
• “Shame on you, Jeff Bezos.” – Jennifer (06:32)

4. Political Leadership and Symbolic Boycotts (07:22 - 10:38)

• Mayor Zoran Mamdani Boycotts Gala:
  • Highlights the true engines of fashion—backstage workers and delivery drivers—and refuses to attend, breaking with tradition.

    “The fashion industry is made possible by the thousands of workers behind the scenes. Seamstresses, tailors, retail workers, delivery drivers... deserve to be celebrated.” – Mayor Mamdani [read by Jennifer] (07:52)

  • Hosts praise Mamdani’s moral leadership and conviction as a model.
• Comparison to earlier, sometimes performative, political gestures (e.g., AOC’s “Tax The Rich” dress at the 2021 Met Gala).

5. The Illusion of Trickle-Down Economics (10:38 - 13:04)

• Jennifer asserts that wealth does not trickle down, citing the still-struggling Amazon worker as proof.
• Argues that the rich, including Bezos, have only gotten richer under Trump, while workers and marginalized groups are hurt: “Jeff Bezos is firing people and he’s going to replace them... with robots.” (11:51)
• Critical look at the so-called “MAGA economy,” with data showing job growth under Biden, then decline under Trump.

6. Democrat Branding, Right-Wing Propaganda, and Political Disillusionment (13:04 - 15:13)

• Ryan reflects on the toxic reputation of Democrats among rural GOP families, regardless of empirical economic data.

  “The Democratic brand has become so toxic that no matter what you say or do, you would never be able to convince, you know, someone like my dad to vote for a Democrat.” – Ryan (13:58)

• Hosts point to right-wing propagandists’ relentless messaging as a key factor in public opinion.

7. The Politics of Fashion, Misogyny, and Bodily Autonomy (15:13 - 19:48)

• Jennifer highlights the irony of the most misogynist administration aligning with an industry women fuel.
• Updates on abortion access post-Roe: Despite SCOTUS temporarily restoring abortion pill access, Republican states and politicians are actively undermining women’s bodily autonomy.

  “The women that carry the water for the patriarchy are the first to drown.” – (16:51, paraphrased from Jennifer)

• Kylie brings personal stories from Oklahoma, underscoring the tangible fear and trauma for women denied care.

  “I just this week got a heartbreaking story from a friend who ... went into hiding ... out of shame, and literally fearing she was going to be arrested. ... It’s really scary.” – Kylie (19:04)

8. The Broader Threat of Fascist Collaboration (19:48 - End)

• Jennifer warns that what happens in red states will spread if fascist collaboration is normalized in culture and business.
• “If every Fortune 500 CEO came forward and said, we will not play ball with this regime, they would not be governing this recklessly. Money rules America.” – Jennifer (19:48)
• Final condemnation of Bezos, Sanchez, and all those propping up the current power structure: “Fascism is horrifically, homicidally uncool.” (closing minute)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Any celebrity that goes, in my opinion, it is an active endorsement of MAGA and Trumpism, and we just can’t look at it any other way. This is fascist collaboration, and they are fascist collaborators.”
  – Jennifer (03:19)

• “When we struggle from paycheck to paycheck ... if it weren’t for every [worker] in every Amazon facility, he wouldn’t have all those zeros behind his neck.”
  – Mary Hill, Amazon worker (06:07)

• “The fashion industry is made possible by the thousands of workers behind the scenes ... whose immense talent and dedication deserves to be celebrated.”
  – Mayor Mamdani (07:52, read by Jennifer)

• “The women that carry the water for the patriarchy are the first to drown.”
  – Jennifer (16:51)

• “You might think, ‘Oh, Jennifer, it’s just a dinner.’ It’s not. You are giving them a permission structure to say MAGA. ... These stories from the Bible Belt will come to blue states. It starts with fascist collaboration.”
  – Jennifer (19:48)

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Important Timestamps

• 01:26 – Episode launches into Met Gala controversy
• 03:19 – Jennifer equates celebrity attendance to endorsing Trumpism ("fascist collaboration")
• 05:32 – Introduction of Amazon worker Mary Hill’s testimony
• 07:52 – Mayor Mamdani’s statement and the meaning of a political boycott
• 10:38 – Jennifer attacks the concept of trickle-down economics with economic data
• 13:58 – Ryan discusses difficulty of shifting political loyalties due to Democratic brand toxicity
• 16:51 – Jennifer’s key quote on patriarchal harm to women
• 19:04 – Kylie shares real-life consequences of abortion bans in red states
• 19:48 – Final call-out of cultural complicity and fascist collaboration

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Tone & Takeaways

Raw, indignant, and deeply personal, this episode rails against billionaire dominance, political cowardice, and the normalization of reactionary policies under Trump. While Jennifer and the crew display humor and pop-culture savvy, the gravitas never lifts: At its core, the episode is a passionate plea for solidarity with workers, women, and all those threatened by what the hosts consider the rising tide of American fascism—both in politics and in society’s most glamorous spaces.

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Transcript

[Ryan]

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[Jennifer]

All right, we are in New York City at the IHIP News studios. I am joined by our producer Kylie and Ryan and we are outraged, I mean absolutely outraged, at Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez Bezos Met Gala. And we are not the only ones outraged. It is being met with fierce backlash from Hollywood. Let's pop this up. Kylie, Bella Hadid joins Zendaya and more A listers in skipping Jeff Bezos backed Met Gala 2026. Ryan notes here that Meryl Streep also will not be attending, reportedly because of Bezos's involvement with the event. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Bezos and Sanchez paid at least $10 million to be involved in the event, the first time a billionaire couple replaced a fashion house as the primary sponsor, which is so pathetic. Amazon has already laid off 14, 000 workers this year and they have record profits. And Jeff Bezos net worth has just insurmountably grown because of Donald Trump and because of his bending the knee to Donald Trump. And let's make these same billionaires who can afford essential to essentially buy the Met Gala pay their fair share instead of cutting lifeline services like teachers pay libraries, social workers and Food Assurance. Kylie, what? Are you going to the Met Gala?

[Kylie]

I'm not going. Not just because I wasn't invited. If I was invited, I still would not go.

[Jennifer]

Good and right. Brian, are you going to the Met Gala?

[Ryan]

My invite got lost in the mail. But, no, I think that this is one of those events that's cultural events that's quickly losing its relevance. And people are just so fed up with how rich these billionaires are getting. And with Jeff Bezos being a sponsor, I just can't see why someone would want to go.

[Jennifer]

To be honest, I really, you guys, I can't wrap my head around that you're that wealthy. And they've got everything on the planet that they could ever want materially. And what they don't want, they're buying. $10 million. We're going to be the sponsors of the Met Gala. So they're buying their way into this inner circle. I think what disgusts me so much are the people who are still going to go, the people who see all of the wealth inequality, they see that the Trump regime, powered by Amazon, powered by Palantir, are shooting people in Minneapolis are rounding up kids, rounding up adults, separating families and putting them in these concentration camps. And to me, this isn't just passive support for Trump. The fact that Bezos put his name on this, any celebrity that goes, in my opinion, it is an active endorsement of MAGA and Trumpism, and we just can't look at it any other way. This is fascist collaboration, and they are fascist collaborators. What do you all think? Is that too bold of me or

[Kylie]

do you think I. I completely agree. I think in this day and age, it's like what we learned about how to fight racism as white people, right? It's not enough to not be racist. You have to be anti racist and call it out. And so anyone that's not saying shit, that's still going to these events, honestly, that's going in a rocket ship up into space and coming back down. I think they're saying to people that they're okay with what Trump is doing.

[Jennifer]

Ryan,

[Ryan]

you know, as much as I love seeing what everyone's wearing on the Met Gala red carpet, and, you know, I have watched in the past, I think this will probably be the first year where I'm checked out. And, you know, ICE uses Amazon's technology and cloud and facial recognition. We've seen what's going on with ICE in this country. There was just another damning report, I believe it was the Washington Post today, about how brutal these people are treated in these facilities.

[Jennifer]

So, no, I think. I think that if you go to this based on Jeff Bezos based on Lauren Sanchez. And they are total fascists. They're not just fascist collaborators, they are fascists. The Bezos are. And I think these celebrities that can't just sit this out and go stand with workers and stand with regular New Yorkers, I think shame on them. And here is a clip of Amazon workers. An Amazon worker calling out Jeff Bezos. Play the clip, Bezos. My name is Mary Hill.

[Ryan]

I am a 72 year old warehouse

[Jennifer]

worker at one of your facilities.

[Ryan]

When we struggle from paycheck to paycheck from week to week to weave, Brittany angers me because if it weren't for every assumption in every Amazon facility, he wouldn't have all those zeros behind his neck.

[Jennifer]

Shame on you, Jeff Bezos.

[Ryan]

The people that need to be being celebrated at the Met Gala are the workers people.

[Jennifer]

I stand with her. I mean, I just, I'm with her. I'm with her all day, every day. It is just such a travesty that you have people that are celebrating these thirst trap broken empty billionaires that have to buy their way into relevance who cannot stand up for her. And we are celebrating the villains who are firing, you know, 14, 15,000 people. He's notorious for union busting. He's notorious for just, just overt greed. And not to mention the stuff that you mentioned in the Washington Post article denying people freedom and due process because of ice. And so every celebrity that goes to the Met Gala, we'll do a roll call tomorrow morning. Rest assured it will not slip by on our watch. But it's just horrific. And Mayor Mamdani is breaking tradition and will not be attending tonight's Met Gala, choosing to highlight those behind the scenes instead. Let's pop this up. The fashion industry is made possible by the thousands of workers behind the scenes. Seamstresses, tailors, retail workers, delivery drivers whose immense talent and dedication deserves to be celebrated. Mayor Zoran Mamdani tells ID exclusively. Ryan, what were you going to say?

[Ryan]

One thing. I just want to note about that video that we just showed before. That woman's 72 years old. She's, you know, out there breaking her back, delivering for Jeff Bezos and the way that Amazon treats its employees. There are reports of people being made to pee into water bottles because they don't have enough time to take a bathroom break. You know, I'm not going to lie. I'm guilty of ordering on Amazon myself, but it's just horrible. And these people deserve to be treated better than that.

[Jennifer]

Especially considering the disparity between how much he makes and how much the employees make if Jeff Bezos paid taxes. If Jeff Bezos gave his workers a livable wage, he would still be rich af right, Kylie? I mean, it's just, it's so greedy.

[Ryan]

$10 million is a drop in the bucket.

[Jennifer]

Totally.

[Kylie]

100 agree. All of these billionaires, what is it they could give away like 999 billion still of a billion dollars, which we can't even fathom how much a billion dollars is. So again, it's back to it's a choice they're doing. They know what they're doing.

[Jennifer]

And I think Zoran Momdani is setting a an example. I think when you have politicians that make you think and make you strive to be a better person person like you. I can be vapid. And I love the, the fashion houses of it and all the glitz and glam of it. Guilty as charged. I love all of that stuff. I love looking at beautiful people dressed in beautiful clothing. Call me shallow, guilty as charged. But it can't be at the expense of the way we treat people and what kind of thumbprint this country has. And right now we have a greedy, corrupt, psychotic president that the richest people in this country have bent the knee to and they have fuck you money. Jeff Bezos doesn't have to do any of this stuff.

[Ryan]

And I think this is a really smart move by Mayor Mamdani because, you know, you still see conservatives highlighting when AOC went to the Met gala a few years ago and she wore that dress and it said tax the rich on the back and people, you know, especially conservative media, still know call out how out of touch that was. So I think that this is a really politically savvy move by the mayor. I'm not surprised because, I mean, I just can't imagine him there in the first place.

[Jennifer]

But, and that's my thing, you guys like conviction, have conviction. This is a four year time to show the world who you are. And I think that these billionaires are so nihilistic. They believe in absolutely nothing. If it behooves them to have pride flags in their country in their company's bio and be a sponsor to gay pride, they're like, okay, that behaves. It's not because they believe in it. They don't believe in it at all. And the second they thought, oh, the country's rejecting woke, then they're bending the knee to this guy. And on top of all of that, the biggest lie that has been perpetrated on the American public is that wealth trickles down and if that were true, you would not have that 72 year old gorgeous Amazon worker who's still working at 72, pleading with Jeff Bezos to not be such a greedy dick. And it doesn't trickle down. It doesn't trickle down at all. In fact, Jeff Bezos has gotten wealthier. Jeff Bezos is firing people and he's going to replace them not with immigrants, not with trans people, not with drag queens, they, but with of course, robots. And here is all you need to know about MAGA economies. It always ends like this with Republicans. War, deficit, stock market tank out, rich, richer, poor, poor pop up this graphic. This is stunning monthly job creation in the United States from November 2020 to March 2026. So you get at the end of COVID obviously those first two where you have the, the red lines, then Joe Biden comes in and you see just, you know, massive growth, massive growth. The Wall Street Journal, which is as conservative as it gets, owned by Rupert Murdoch, that also owns Fox News, said a week before front cover of their newspaper, whoever wins will inherit the world's strongest economy. And pop that back up, Kylie. That's what he did with the world's strongest economy. That is a dedication to being a up. That is like hyper myopic focus on, I want to this up. All he had to do was grab the baton and he could have focused on his interior design projects because the money and the economy was doing really well.

[Ryan]

Right.

[Jennifer]

But I also think about this and I have problems with Joe Biden fundamentally because Trump wasn't prosecuted in jail, but Democrats like his cabinet and all of the people that point it was the most diverse ever. It was representative of what America looks like. Now. America is not just a white Christian hegemony. It is this beautiful country of all of this diversity. And then you have all Trump and then all of these billionaires and all of their customer base is diverse and that they treat their customer base like this and that the President treats the American public like this. I just, I cannot wait till tomorrow's episode to do a roll call on every celebrity that goes there. And I know I'm going to have my heart broken. I'm sure there's probably three or four. But I'll tell you what, I'm a big girl and I will. They will be on the list.

[Ryan]

Well, and I think that it's just such an indictment of the Democratic brand that, you know, the Republicans are able to say, you know, we're the party of the economy and jobs and people. You know, I'm from A family where, you know, I have a parent who voted for Donald Trump. And the Democratic brand has become so toxic that no matter what you say or do, you would never be able to convince, you know, someone like my dad to vote for a Democrat. And even though we have the information so available to us in that graph showing how much Donald Trump is tearing apart our economy.

[Jennifer]

But you bring up a great point. And it is, it's not that the Democratic brand has become so toxic in and of itself. There's a lot there. But the propaganda in right wing circles.

[Ryan]

Well, and that's what I'm more speaking to.

[Jennifer]

Yeah, it's so. They are so good at that.

[Ryan]

Yeah.

[Jennifer]

Are so good at like for those

[Ryan]

who have been, you know, brainwashed.

[Jennifer]

Totally.

[Ryan]

The Republican conservative.

[Jennifer]

They're relentless.

[Ryan]

Exactly.

[Jennifer]

They are relentless.

[Ryan]

I am a Democrat.

[Jennifer]

He is a Democrat. He did not vote for Trump. Not one time. Did you?

[Ryan]

No, I didn't.

[Jennifer]

Okay, good. Kylie, I want to get your take on this. So the fashion industry is, I would say women drive. That is their men's fashion. Yes. But the, the feminine overarching plot of the fashion industry to me is just really fantastic. It's a place where women can really shine and it's stunning to me that the most misogynist administration, the most anti woman administration I've ever seen in my lifetime, I was born in 1974 and how Hyper focused they are on denying women freedom in this anti abortion movement. Pop this up. So the number of abortions have increased year after year post row. The FDA approved a new generic of the abortion pill and failed to finish a safety review of myth Prince Pristone. Trump is the problem. The head of the of SBA tells the Wall Street Journal. The President is the problem. And here's more reporting on that. This is just insulting, right? This is not what we voted for. Advancing American freedoms. Mark Wheat told the Wall Street Journal while Family Research Council president Tony Perkins. And that guy is a five star prick, let me tell you, accused the Trump administration of undermining conservative states. You have Republican states that are challenging a Republican administration over this because their laws are being undermined. Perkins protested. Pro life voters are going to be wondering what's going on when they head into the polls in novemb. And so basically a lower court tried to cease and halt the shipping of methylpristone, which is a safe over the counter abortion pill that women can take even in abortion ban America. And the SCOTUS came in, I believe this morning and restored the abortion pill access. But I just want to say this. The women, and this is not mine. I read this online, it's so brilliant. The women that carry the water for the patriarchy are the first to drown. And coming from abortion ban America, Kylie and I, both Oklahomans, you cannot go a week without hearing a story about a woman who is pregnant that goes to the doctor, has an ultrasound and there's something severely wrong with the fetus. Severely wrong. And the doctor says this baby, if you deliver it to term, is going to die instantly and it could kill you if you deliver it. But there's nothing we can do. My hands are tied. And this is story after story after story after story of Republicans not only lying to everybody about how good they are with the economy and the graph showed they're clearly not, but also they're the party of anti freedom. And even Jeff Bezos isn't that free. Even being a billionaire in Trump's America, you're not that free because you still have to pay $10 million to be a cool kid.

[Ryan]

Yeah. I mean, I grew up in Massachusetts and abortion access has never really been an issue there. So it's been enlightening to be here to hear you talk about and Kylie talk about, you know, what it is like in these red states where literally you can die because you don't have access to reproductive care. And it's just so sad. And I guess the silver lining is that it's still not good enough for these anti abortion people. What Trump has done, you know, in helping overturn abortion access in this country,

[Kylie]

it hasn't prevented one abortion. It's just caused death. And like Jen alluded to, I just this week got a heartbreaking story from a friend who basically like went into hiding for about a month out of shame, of shame of her peers and the religious culture in our state. And then also literally fearing she was going to be arrested. So. And it was to protect her health. It's just. Moving to New York, I've had conversations with Democrats here and people who are obviously super aligned, but I've noticed people don't really understand the experience of most Americans in the middle. And it, it's really scary.

[Jennifer]

And I think here's the problem, it will happen to other states. This patty cake with fascism that Jeff Bezos, Lauren Sanchez, and every celebrity going to the Met Gala, you might think, oh, Jennifer, it's just a dinner. It's not. You are giving them a permission structure to say maga. And all of the people that are funding maga, all of the people that are funding fascism, which make mistake about it. If every Fortune 500 CEO came forward and said, we will not play ball with this regime, they would not be governing this recklessly. Money rules America. But because all of these industry titans bent the knee and go play patty cake with him with their participation trophies. And they have these lunches where they, oh, President Trump, you're so great. Because of your leadership, we're able to do all of this with our AI and it's such a. This, these stories that are from the Bible Belt will come to blue states. And it starts with fascist collaboration and capitulation. And that's why Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez suck. They could very easily say, we are going to be the resistance. We are going to go sit down when we go to New York with Zoran Mamdani and talk to him about the things that he's doing in New York to give children health care. To give children child care. They don't. They're going. They're paying their money to go. To try to be cool. And they will never be cool because fascism is horrifically, homicidally uncool. All right, that's all we have. I would like to thank the New York crew for joining me. That's some riveting stuff. We'll do a fascist roll call tomorrow morning and we will see you then.