Amazon founder Jeff Bezos said he is optimistic about Donald Trump’s second term as president and is ready to help him reduce federal regulations. By doing so, the tech billionaire suggests he hopes to avoid clashes with the Republican, who in his previous term accused Amazon of not paying enough taxes.

“He seems to have a lot of energy for reducing regulations, and if I can help him with that, I will,” Bezos said on stage at the New York Times’ DealBook conference in New York on Wednesday. “We have too many regulations in this country,” he pointed out.

Bezos, who owns the Washington Post Group, went on to say that Trump is “calmer” and has “matured over the last eight years” since he was first elected president.

Asked if he was concerned about the president-elect’s aggressive attitude toward reporters, Bezos said he hoped he could convince the incoming US president that the press “is not the enemy.”

The Amazon founder spoke with The New York Times’ Andrew Ross Sorkin in a wide-ranging discussion that also included Blue Origin, the billionaire’s space exploration company, and his ownership of The Post.

More personal topics were also covered, such as how Bezos manages his public image and plans his days once he steps down as Amazon CEO in 2021.

The billionaire also revealed that he spends a lot of time working on the initiatives artificial intelligence of Amazon, echoing statements about the latest artificial intelligence technology made by the company’s current CEO, Andy Jassy, ​​at an Amazon cloud computing event in Las Vegas this week.

Bezos also addressed the controversy caused by his decision in October to terminate The Post’s practice to support presidential candidatesa decision made less than two weeks before Election Day. The newspaper’s editorial team had planned to support the vice president Kamala Harris.

Bezos said he regrets the outcry, but believes he made the right choice to improve the trust of WP readers.

At the same time, he denied that he made this decision to win the favor of the second Trump administration. “The Post covers all presidents very aggressively, will continue to cover all presidents very aggressively,” Bezos said.

The second richest man in the world also stated that his financial resources are “advantage” for The Post, but also that loses money and must be “restored to a good footing.”

Bezos said he has “ideas” and “inventions” that could help, though he didn’t specify what they are. He also sent the message that he expects to get the newspaper business back on track. “You know, we once saved the Washington Post,” he said, referring to the newspaper’s 2013 purchase and subsequent changes in its strategy. “This will be the second time we save her,” he emphasized.

Bezos also took issue with how his great wealth is perceived, saying it would be more insightful to rank people based on how much wealth they have created for others, rather than their personal wealth.

As the owner of about $200 billion of Amazon’s $2.3 trillion market cap, he said, “I’ve created about $2.1 trillion of wealth for other people.”

Later in the interview, he also referred to his position on Forbes magazine’s list of the world’s richest people, saying that he would prefer to climb the ranks of a list of better inventors of the world. When you’re among the richest people in the world, which Bezos said was never his goal, “people focus too much on that, and then they think you’re focusing on that, which is not true,” he said.

Bezos also talked about the space exploration company Blue Originwhich competes with SpaceX, the company founded by Trump’s close adviser, Elon Musk.

The founder of Amazon also stated that he trusts Musk and he doesn’t think he will use his close relationship with Trump to hurt his rivals or benefit his own companies, and spoke positively of his appointment with Vivek Ramaswamy to lead the “government efficiency department,” where he will advise Trump on cuts to federal agencies.

“I’m very optimistic that President Trump is serious about this regulatory agenda and I think he has a good chance of success,” Bezos said, adding that he owes his success to maintaining a positive outlook.

“Why be cynical? Let’s go with the hope that the statements that have been made are correct and that this has been done unfairly in the public interest. And if that turns out to be naive, then we’ll see. But I think it will be great. I hope so,” concluded Jeff Bezos in his statements.