President Donald Trump’s long-held idea of privatizing the U.S. Postal Service is about to become a reality.
The president is gearing up to dissolve the leadership of the Postal Service and absorb the independent agency into his administration, according to The Washington Post.
Six sources told the Post that Trump is expected to sign an executive order as soon as this week firing members of the agency’s Board of Governors and placing the Postal Service under the control of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
In December, Trump reportedly discussed his intent to privatize the Postal Service with Lutnick and a group of transition officials.
“There is a lot of talk about the Postal Service being taken private,” he said at the time. “It’s a lot different today, between Amazon and UPS and FedEx and all the things that you didn’t have. But there is talk about that. It’s an idea that a lot of people have liked for a long time.”
The move follows consistent efforts by billionaire Jeff Bezos to align himself with Trump in recent months. On top of dinners with Trump in Mar-a-Lago, Bezos donated $1 million to the president’s inaugural fund through his e-commerce giant Amazon. He also censored the Post’s endorsement of Kamala Harris last year.
The resignation of Louis DeJoy as Postmaster General on Tuesday further set the stage for Trump’s privatization agenda, but the Governing Board is reportedly ready to fight back.
Three sources told the Post that the board convened in an emergency meeting on Thursday and established a plan to sue the White House if Trump were to fire members or mess with the agency’s independent status.
DeJoy left the Postal Service amid reports that it was not expected to break even this year and lost $10 billion last year. He took the helm of the financially troubled agency during the first Trump administration and led it through the COVID-19 pandemic and attacks on mail-in ballot stations.
In 2020, Trump called the Postal Service “a joke” and said it should raise the price of a package four-fold. Even then, he wanted to privatize the agency.
“The Postal Service is a joke. Because they’re handing out packages for Amazon and other internet companies, and every time they bring a package, they lose money on it,” Trump said at the time.
