WASHINGTON — The Board of Governors of the U.S. Postal Service is bracing for an tried takeover by the Trump administration and has retained outdoors counsel to struggle any govt order to that impact, based on two sources with data of the board’s plans.
The board’s 9 members, who’re appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate, held an emergency assembly after the Senate confirmed Howard Lutnick for commerce secretary on Wednesday, the sources stated. In December, Lutnick first mentioned his plans with President Donald Trump to dissolve USPS management and fold the company into the Division of Commerce, based on one of many sources.
No govt orders concentrating on the Postal Service are within the works, based on two White Home officers, although they acknowledged there have been talks about methods to make it extra environment friendly together with the remainder of the federal authorities.
The Washington Publish first reported a possible takeover of USPS.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks, as he indicators an govt order within the Oval Workplace, on the White Home in Washington, D.C., U.S. Feb. 14, 2025.
Nathan Howard | Reuters
Within the Oval Workplace, throughout Lutnick’s swearing in ceremony Friday, Trump revealed that his new commerce secretary “will likely be trying” at USPS.
“He is going to take a look at it, he is acquired an awesome enterprise intuition, which is what we’d like, and he’ll be taking a look at it. And we predict we are able to flip it round, but it surely’s — it is the Postal Service,” Trump stated in response to questions from reporters. “We’re shedding a lot cash with the Postal Service, and we do not need to lose that form of cash. So the Secretary and a few others which have expertise, that form of expertise, we’ll be taking a look at it.”
USPS reported a web revenue of $144 million for the primary quarter of this fiscal yr, the primary time the company posted a revenue since 2006, based on the Pew Analysis Heart.
The postal board believes any govt order could be unconstitutional, provided that the Postal Service is authorized by the Constitution and was created by an act of Congress. It is also unlikely that Trump would have the ability to privatize the company with out congressional approval.
Mark Dimondstein, the president of the American Postal Employees Union, stated in an announcement any takeover try could be an “assault on the postal service.”
“The takeover would cut back service, particularly to rural America, elevate charges, shut publish places of work and revenue from what’s property owned by the American individuals,” stated Dimondstein. “We ask all our clients to hitch us within the struggle to keep up our vibrant, impartial, and public United States Postal Service and to oppose these unlawful acts.”
Throughout his first administration, Trump eyed getting rid of what’s generally known as the common service obligation, a federal requirement that directs the Postal Service to offer mail companies to all U.S. residents day by day, no matter the place they stay. If the Trump administration seeks to eliminate USPS, it may affect hundreds of thousands of individuals depend on the Postal Service for important mail, together with medicines, notably in rural areas.
The discussions on USPS come because the lately established Division of Authorities Effectivity, led by tech billionaire Elon Musk, has slashed dozens of federal packages and reduce 1000’s of presidency jobs through the first month of Trump’s second time period. The cuts are a part of an effort by Trump and Musk to overtake the federal authorities.
Any efforts to dismantle the Postal Service wouldn’t be an anomaly below the Trump administration, which has sought to fold elements of USAID and the Division of Schooling into different businesses. On the identical time, a lot of Trump’s strikes to implement swift modifications have encountered authorized roadblocks within the courts.
Republican Louis DeJoy, head of the USPS for the final 5 years, introduced plans to step down as postmaster common this week. In the course of the transition, DeJoy met with members of the incoming Trump administration and it did not go nicely, based on one supply with data of the assembly, who stated DeJoy and Lutnick have additionally had a contentious relationship.
After 2020, when hundreds of thousands of Individuals, largely Democrats, voted by mail through the coronavirus pandemic, DeJoy’s relationship with Trump by no means thawed, based on a supply accustomed to the president’s pondering on the USPS and mail-in voting. Trump criticized the apply in 2020 and blamed his loss to Joe Biden on it.
“Trump would not view the USPS as a service,” the supply stated, although the phrase is in its identify. “He nonetheless has points with mail-in voting.”
