Just hours after proposing a total ban on Muslims entering the U.S. on Monday, Donald Trump shared some ideas on how to solve the problem of the Islamic State (ISIS) recruiting young Americans online, and it involves — partially, at least — "closing up" that Internet thing. 
 
 "We're losing a lot of people because of the Internet. And we have to do something. We have to go see Bill Gates and a lot of different people that really understand what's happening. We have to talk to them and maybe, in certain areas, closing that Internet up in some ways," Trump said at a campaign rally in South Carolina on Monday. 
 
 We'll let you work out the meaning of "closing the Internet up" for yourselves, but it's interesting that Trump thinks this somehow involves seeing Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates. If only the Internet were just a series of tubes, with Bill Gates controlling the main valve, this would be so much easier. 
 
 Worry not, however: While Trump has an idea on how to solve the Internet problem, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has an idea on how to solve the Trump problem. Bezos, who was publicly attacked by Donald Trump yesterday, claiming on Twitter that Bezos keeps the Washington Post for purposes of keeping his Amazon taxes down, has answered by offering Trump a trip into space. 
 
 The @washingtonpost, which loses a fortune, is owned by @JeffBezos for purposes of keeping taxes down at his no profit company, @amazon. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 7, 2015 
 
 "Finally trashed by @realDonaldTrump. Will still reserve him a seat on the Blue Origin rocket," tweeted Bezos, adding a #sendDonaldtospace hashtag for good measure. 
 
 Finally trashed by @realDonaldTrump. Will still reserve him a seat on the Blue Origin rocket. #sendDonaldtospace https://t.co/9OypFoxZk3 — Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) December 7, 2015 
 
 Blue Origin is Jeff Bezos space travel company, expected to send first travelers into space sometime in 2017. So, two more years? 

 Jeff Bezos had only tweeted three times before Monday when he aimed his fourth tweet at Donald Trump. It included the hashtag #sendDonaldtospace. 
 
 Bezos, the CEO of Amazon (AMZN), owns the Washington Post as well as the space exploration company Blue Origin. 
 
 What sent Bezos into orbit was a series of tweets by Trump accusing Amazon of not paying "fair taxes." Trump suggested that if Amazon did so, its "stock would crumble like a paper bag." 
 
 Trump didn't stop there. 
 
 He alleged that Bezos is using his ownership of the newspaper as a "big tax shelter" for Amazon since the paper is "losing a fortune." 
 
 Trump also claimed that Amazon is a "no profit" company. 
 
 Bezos' tweet seemed to take Trump's attack as a badge of honor as he replied while creating his first hashtag. 
 
 Finally trashed by @realDonaldTrump. Will still reserve him a seat on the Blue Origin rocket. #sendDonaldtospace https://t.co/9OypFoxZk3 — Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) December 7, 2015 
 
 Trump didn't elaborate on Amazon's tax figures. He actually didn't cite any. 
 
 But when you take a look at Amazon's numbers -- and consider that The Washington Post is not an Amazon subsidiary -- Trump's claims don't really hold up. 
 
 For one, Amazon doesn't own the newspaper. Bezos does. So it's not clear at all how Amazon can use the paper's losses as an excuse to pay lower taxes. 
 
 Related: Fact-checkers take on Donald Trump 
 
 It's no different than Bezos' ownership in Blue Origin. He couldn't use losses there to lower Amazon's tax rate. 
 
 "The fact that Bezos owns two companies would generally not allow one of them to reduce its corporate income tax bill," said one corporate tax expert. 
 
 The @washingtonpost, which loses a fortune, is owned by @JeffBezos for purposes of keeping taxes down at his no profit company, @amazon. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 7, 2015 
 
 The @washingtonpost loses money (a deduction) and gives owner @JeffBezos power to screw public on low taxation of @Amazon! Big tax shelter — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 7, 2015 
 
 If @amazon ever had to pay fair taxes, its stock would crash and it would crumble like a paper bag. The @washingtonpost scam is saving it! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 7, 2015 
 
 Regarding Trump's claim about taxes, Amazon paid $167 million in income taxes in 2014 -- the first full year after Bezos acquired the paper. And that was despite the fact that Amazon reported a pre-tax loss in 2014. 
 
 And in the first nine months of this year, Amazon has paid $498 million in income taxes and reported pre-tax income of $630 million. 
 
 So Trump is wrong when he said that Amazon is unprofitable. 
 
 "It doesn't make any sense," said Martin Sullivan, chief economist with Tax Analysts. 
 
 To be sure, Amazon doesn't have a squeaky clean image with regards to taxes. 
 
 It has been targeted in probes in Europe for allegedly paying lower taxes there than it should. It agreed earlier this year to pay taxes in more European nations. It had previously only been doing so in tiny Luxembourg. 
 
 Amazon isn't the only big American company accused of dodging taxes abroad either. Apple (AAPL) and Starbucks (SBUX) have come under fire in Europe too. 
 
 But nobody in Europe has accused Amazon of using Bezos' personal investment in a media company to lower its tax bill. 
 
 Amazon had no comment about Trump's allegations. 
 
 Its stock has more than doubled this year. That is mainly a reflection of Amazon's growing dominance in online retail and its emergence as a cloud computing giant, and not because of what it does or doesn't pay in taxes. 

 The @ washingtonpost, which loses a fortune, is owned by @ JeffBezos for purposes of keeping taxes down at his no profit company, @ amazon.
– After Donald Trump is done banning all Muslims from the US, he'll consider shutting down the Internet to stop ISIS "jihadists"—or so he told a South Carolina crowd on Monday. "We're losing a lot of people because of the Internet," Trump said. "We have to see Bill Gates and a lot of different people … We have to talk to them about, maybe in certain areas, closing that Internet up in some ways. Somebody will say, 'Oh freedom of speech, freedom of speech.' These are foolish people." The reaction has been much like that to his aforementioned plan. "The idea is so dumb it almost has us … at a loss for words,” writes Nick Statt at the Verge, noting "it's unclear if Trump was suggesting the US government censor certain parts of the web or if he lacks a basic understanding of how the Internet works." "If only the Internet were just a series of tubes, with Bill Gates controlling the main valve, this would be so much easier," quips Mashable. Should Trump's comments make him miss out on being Republican nominee, Jeff Bezos has an idea where to send him. In a series of tweets on Monday, Trump suggested Bezos' ownership of the Washington Post was "for purposes of keeping taxes down at his no profit company," Amazon. "If Amazon ever had to pay fair taxes, its stock would crash and it would crumble like a paper bag," Trump wrote. An economist says there's no sense to the comments, yet Bezos—who also owns space firm Blue Origin—didn't seem offended. "Finally trashed by @realDonaldTrump," he tweeted in reply, per CNNMoney. "Will still reserve him a seat on the Blue Origin rocket. #sendDonaldtospace."