WASHINGTON — The Board of Governors of the U.S. Postal Service is bracing for an tried takeover by the Trump administration and has retained exterior counsel to struggle any government 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 government orders focusing 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 Submit first reported a possible takeover of USPS.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks, as he indicators an government 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 “shall be trying” at USPS.
“He is going to take a look at it, he is received an excellent enterprise intuition, which is what we want, and he’ll be it. And we expect we will flip it round, but it surely’s — it is the Postal Service,” Trump stated in response to questions from reporters. “We’re dropping a lot cash with the Postal Service, and we do not need to lose that sort of cash. So the Secretary and a few others which have expertise, that sort of expertise, we’ll be it.”
USPS reported a web revenue of $144 million for the primary quarter of this fiscal 12 months, the primary time the company posted a revenue since 2006, based on the Pew Analysis Heart.
The postal board believes any government order can 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 be capable of privatize the company with out congressional approval.
Mark Dimondstein, the president of the American Postal Employees Union, stated in a press release any takeover try can be an “assault on the postal service.”
“The takeover would scale back service, particularly to rural America, increase charges, shut put up 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 take care of our vibrant, impartial, and public United States Postal Service and to oppose these unlawful acts.”
Throughout his first administration, Trump eyed removing what’s often called the common service obligation, a federal requirement that directs the Postal Service to supply mail providers to all U.S. residents day by day, no matter the place they stay. If the Trump administration seeks to dispose of USPS, it might influence hundreds of thousands of individuals depend on the Postal Service for essential mail, together with drugs, notably in rural areas.
The discussions on USPS come because the not too long ago established Division of Authorities Effectivity, led by tech billionaire Elon Musk, has slashed dozens of federal applications and lower 1000’s of presidency jobs in the course of 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 points of USAID and the Division of Training into different companies. On the identical time, lots 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. Throughout the transition, DeJoy met with members of the incoming Trump administration and it did not go properly, 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 People, largely Democrats, voted by mail in the course of the coronavirus pandemic, DeJoy’s relationship with Trump by no means thawed, based on a supply aware of the president’s considering on the USPS and mail-in voting. Trump criticized the observe in 2020 and blamed his loss to Joe Biden on it.
“Trump does not view the USPS as a service,” the supply stated, regardless that the phrase is in its title. “He nonetheless has points with mail-in voting.”
