Trump Is Planning to Take Over the Postal Service
According to The Washington Post, which first reported the plans, the takeover could come as soon as next week via an executive order. A White House official later told CNN that the reports were 'not true,' and that, 'no such EO (executive order) is in the works, and Secretary Lutnick is not pushing for such an EO.' The Wall Street Journal also reported that Trump is planning to take control of the USPS.
Trump has a longstanding feud with USPS, the national postal carrier that has existed since even before the United States became an independent nation. During his first term — amid financial struggles at the USPS — Trump attempted to gut the agency entirely, telling Fox Business that he was willing to deny the postal service a financial lifeline because 'if they don't get those items, that means you can't have universal mail-in voting because they're not equipped to have it.'
Last year, Trump floated a full-blown privatization of the USPS during transition discussions with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, a move that could severely impact mail delivery across the nation. The USPS was created with the intent of standardizing postage rates across the United States, and ensuring that Americans living in even the most remote corners of the nation had access to postal services. The agency operates under a 'universal service obligation,' meaning that mail in their charge gets delivered regardless of distance or cost of service.
On Thursday, the American Postal Workers Union — which represents over over 200,000 USPS employees and retirees — wrote that Trump's plans to absorb the USPS into his control 'would be an outrageous, unlawful attack on a storied national treasure, enshrined in the Constitution and created by Congress to serve every American home and business equally.'
'Efforts to privatize the Postal Service, in whole or in part, or to strip it of its independence or public service mission, would be of no benefit to the American people. Instead, it would drive up postage rates and lead to reduced service, especially to rural America,' the statement, from APWU President Mark Dimondstein, continued. 'The law created the Postal Service as an independent Agency, freed from the shifting political winds, and dedicated to serving the American public. The law created the Postal Board of Governors, and empowers it and it alone to hire and fire the Postmaster General. Any effort by the Administration to remove the Board or fire postal executives is clearly illegal.'
Despite financial struggles — and needed reforms to compete with shipping giants like Amazon, UPS, and FedEx — the U.S. postal service remains one of the most popular government agencies in a time of low confidence in the American government. According to a 2024 report from the Pew Research Center, the USPS holds a 72 percent favorability rating, ranking above NASA and second only to the National Parks Service.
Speaking of the National Parks Service, Trump and Elon Musk have gutted that, too, laying off over 1,000 employees last week. The move has already led to an avalanche of cancelled reservations, and, as one former park ranger put it to the Post, 'chaos everywhere.'
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