WASHINGTON—Chaos broke out around the U.S. Postal Service on February 20 as the Trump administration announced plans for a direct hostile takeover of the institution, which has been a key to democracy in the nation for some 250 years.
Obvious among the purposes of the latest agency takeover by Trump and Musk is the ease with which it will enable them to end the voting by mail across the country that they detest so much. Vote-by-mail brings millions of working class and poor voters into the electorate, voters the extreme right would prefer to keep out.
Eight states–California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Vermont, and Washington, plus D.C.—mail ballots to every voter regardless of whether they request such ballots.
Still other states with vote-by-mail require voters to ask, with restrictions. The system of mail-in voting benefits turning out of early voters that often, Trump believes, helps Democrats. It’s something that Trump and Musk would like to end forever.
The latest move to take over the Postal Service is not the first attempt by Trump to damage an institution so important to democracy in America. During his first term, the anti-worker Republican President Trump wanted to privatize the USPS, turning its profitable parts over to corporate chieftains, eliminating universal service and trashing its unions on the way. Now he plans to fire its board and end USPS’s independence. Several critics call that an actual towards privatization.
And if Trump tries to dismantle the USPS, its board has already voted to sue him.
The man Trump named in July 2020 as Postmaster General, GOP big giver Louis DeJoy, the former XPO Logistics package company CEO, announced he plans to quit. His “reorganization plan,” implemented after he took over, is—after mass closures, forced departures of workers, service slowdowns and postage rate hikes—seen as a controversial flop.
Both big postal unions, the Letter Carriers (NALC) and the Postal Workers (APWU), having gotten wind of Trump’s takeover scheme, through a Washington Post article, hit the ceiling. NALC converted its “Fight Like Hell” campaign for improved working conditions, launched on February 13, into “HELL NO! to dismantling the Postal Service.”
And talks on a new contract between NALC and DeJoy’s corporate team reached an impasse, Letter Carriers President Brian Renfroe announced. So it’s off to arbitration both sides go. NALC members had voted down Renfroe’s first try at a new contract. That pact’s 1.3% annual raise was too small.
Postal Workers President Mark Dimondstein was caustic at greater length. He called Trump’s plan to dump the USPS into the Commerce Department “part of the billionaire oligarch coup” Trump and multibillionaire Elon Musk, are carrying out government-wide, and “a hostile takeover.”
“It would be an outrageous, unlawful attack on a storied national treasure, enshrined in the Constitution and created by Congress to serve every home and business equally,” Dimondstein declared. Attacking the USPS would be attacking not just the union, “but the millions of Americans who rely on the critical public service our members provide every single day.
“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.” The 1970 law making the USPS independent freed it “from the shifting political winds, and dedicated [it] to serving the public.”
Joined chorus of critics
Two top congressional Democrats on postal issues, Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., and Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., joined the chorus of critics.
“If President Trump moves forward with this action to take over and privatize the Postal Service, not only will it be completely illegal, it will harm veterans, small business owners, rural communities, and
all Americans who depend on the Postal Service for timely and reliable mail delivery,” said Peters.
Trump “is clearly only interested in boosting private companies and leaving Americans without the critical lifeline the Postal Service provides.”
Connolly said the USPS is “a nonpartisan, Constitutionally authorized, self-sustaining agency that serves the people. Millions of Americans rely on the Postal Service every day to deliver mail, medications, ballots, and so much more. Only the Postal Service delivers everywhere…no matter how remote.
“Now two billionaires”—Musk and Trump—”are following through on their plot, developed at” Trump’s Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, “to put tax cuts for the rich ahead of everyday Americans who rely on the Postal Service. Privatizing the Postal Service is an attack on Americans’ access to critical information, benefits, and life-saving medical care. Trump and his cronies value lining their own pockets more than the lives and connection of the public.”
All this overshadowed DeJoy’s decision, announced earlier in the day, to step down. His excuse was that after almost five years, someone else with fresh eyes should take over the reorganization plan. Just a month before, though, DeJoy had vowed to stay on the job “until I’m carried out.”
The unions waved DeJoy good-by and demanded a better service commitment from his successor. As NALC’s Renfroe said, they want a new Postmaster General “who values the workforce,” and the work.
Lawmakers, including Peters, Connolly and several other caustic House critics of DeJoy, had no immediate comment on DeJoy’s departure. Not so Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga.
He’s been demanding for more than a year that the postal board fire DeJoy. He also introduced legislation to limit future Postmasters General to five-year terms and subject to presidential nomination, Senate confirmation and subsequent accountability to Congress and the public.
Ossoff has good reason. The Postal Service’s own Inspector General said USPS was failing its own delivery standards, which DeJoy had reduced. The failures are especially acute in two metro areas whose center cities, Baltimore and Detroit, are majority-minority. And in the entire state of Georgia.
There, during the holiday season a year ago, on-time delivery under DeJoy slid to an abominable 36%.
“USPS leadership failed Georgia for over a year, leading to abysmal on-time performance and hardship for families, businesses, seniors, and veterans. That’s why I’ve led aggressive oversight to demand better performance and prevent disastrous delays across our state,” the senator said.
“As the USPS board begins its search for a replacement, I urge them to find new leadership that will swiftly restore normal service that Georgia families and businesses can rely on, and I will continue holding them accountable.”
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