Trump eyes privatizing U.S. Postal Service, citing financial losses

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: Washington Post

Trump eyes privatizing U.S. Postal Service, citing financial losses
Trump feuded with the mail agency in his first term. Privatizing it could shake up consumer shipping and business supply chains.

December 14, 2024 at 7:00 a.m. EST Today at 7:00 a.m. EST


A customer drops mail into a Postal Service collection box in 2020. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

By Jacob Bogage, Jacqueline Alemany and Jeff Stein

President-elect Donald Trump has expressed a keen interest in privatizing the U.S. Postal Service in recent weeks, three people with knowledge of the matter said, a move that could shake up consumer shipping and business supply chains and push hundreds of thousands of federal workers out of the government.

Trump has discussed his desire to overhaul the Postal Service at his Mar-a-Lago estate with Howard Lutnick, his pick for commerce secretary and the co-chair of his presidential transition, the people said. Earlier this month, Trump also convened a group of transition officials to ask for their views on privatizing the agency, one of the people said.

{snip}

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/12/14/trump-usps-privatize-plan/

[Irish_Dem]

1. Selling off the federal government piece by piece.

To his pals and buddies.

[Zorro]

2. Just like what happened in the USSR

[Irish_Dem]

4. Exactly. Following Putin's model right down the line.

[Botany]

3. Burning America to the ground

Last edited Sat Dec 14, 2024, 10:06 AM - Edit history (1)

Btw the post office doesn’t show a profit because the GOP fucked with how they pay for
retirement funds.

[LiberalArkie]

20. How much profit does the DEA, FBI, Dept of Agriculture, US Forestry Service, US Army, Air Force Navy show?

[littlemissmartypants]

23. Excellent point. ❤️

[BoRaGard]

5. Standard G.O.P. pattern: screw something over totally

Blame others.

Then profit.

[Joinfortmill]

6. Improve yes, although my experience with USPS

has always been good. Privatize, no. We have enough billionnaires.

[PAMod]

7. Terrible idea.

#1 - we gotta stop talking about “losses” - instead, acknowledge that it is the COST of an important government service.

#2 - the postal service is in the Constitution of the United States.

[raging moderate]

8. Doesn't the US Constitution protect the US Postal Service?

It seems to me that I remember seeing the US Postal Service mandated in the US Constitution.

[Joinfortmill]

11. It does.

[Jilly_in_VA]

28. In which case

he is going to have one hell of a time ending it, Just like birthright citizenship.

[DENVERPOPS]

29. Not after the Republicans/Trump,

The Republican controlled House and Senate, along with the USSC get thru revising what they have often called the constitution:
"an antiquated piece of paper"......

I can't believe people aren't talking about the effort to destroy the post office's additional target by the Repubs.......
It wipes out one of the largest, if not THE largest Union, in one fell swoop........

Of course that is somewhat of a moot point....when they get rid of the NLRB, it is the kiss of death for unions......

[The Madcap]

38. After they destroy the constitution,

Is there even a country anymore? Just asking....

[Angleae]

39. It doesn't mandate it, it just allows congress to create it.

Of course as such, he'll need congress to pass legislation to privatize it.

[Timeflyer]

9. The plan all along was to take over and destroy from the inside, just like corrupt Mom for Liberty school boards.

Goal--privatize profit, socialize loss.

[Squaredeal]

10. City-folk liberals have other resources close by.

The country-folk MAGAs are going to hurt when they have to drive miles to pick up their mail or to ship something.

[littlemissmartypants]

24. Especially those with home businesses. ...

They won't like it one bit. Some of us out in the country still can't get 5G or broadband.

[jayschool2013]

12. A quote from a Drumpf lackey

“The government is slow, slow, slow — decades slow on adopting new ways of doing things, and there’s a lot of [other] carrier services that became legal in the ’70s that are doing things so much better with increased volumes and reduced costs,” said Casey Mulligan, who served as a top economist in the first Trump administration. “We didn’t finish the job in the first term, but we should finish it now.”

In other words, sell it to Bezos, fire all the workers and jettison their pensions, and then hire desperate people willing to work for minimum wage and as gig workers.

[johnnyfins]

22. Don't forget all of the land that the Post Offices

Occupy. Developers are prolly licking their chops at this news.

[DENVERPOPS]

31. All of them

will be sold to Fedex and UPS for pennies on the dollar in a Trump Fire Sale.......

Rural America is going to get a little taste of crap for their having voted for Trump & Republicans......Once Fedex and UPS take control, they then have to bear the expense of "Last Mile" delivery. Which is an expense they currently don't pay, due to dumping packages on the USPS for "Last Mile" delivery to the entire Rural America. I am sure that under fedex and ups, that Rural America will pay thru the nose for package delivery, and an even more ludicrous amount for MAIL delivery.......

I envision the zillions of rural post offices, being taken over by Fedex and UPS. Instead of mail being dropped off at ranches and farms mail boxes, in the geographic area covered by the post office, they will be required to come to some town pick it up. AND, the old post office building will only be open on Saturdays.......

[travelingthrulife]

13. Mission accomplished

[JohnnyRingo]

14. That was DeJoy's job when Trump appointed him Postmaster

Took him longer than expected to trash it.

[littlemissmartypants]

25. Bingo. DeHands over DeEars. What an impressive leader he turned out to be.

[Lonestarblue]

15. Perhaps we should first look at cutting the estimated $2-3 billion waste by the Dept. of Defense.

Oh, wait, that waste goes to the profits of companies like Raytheon and their wealthy shareholders would be upset if a smidgeon of their profits were cut. Why is the USPS the only government agency expected to earn a profit? No others do.

One of my biggest disappointments is that Biden was able to get a majority of Democrats on the USPS Board of Governors, but evidently the people he chose were happy with DeJoy’s destruction and they refused to fire him.

[truthisfreedom]

16. "Look over here!" While he rapes the US elsewhere.

Every time he says something outrageous it’s to get in the news and distract from some other horrifyingly nefarious action. Look at what else he’s trying to hide right now.

[LPBBEAR]

17. What a surprise

this news is!

NOT

[FakeNoose]

18. The US Postal Service was never meant to be "profitable"

It's a government service to our citizens and it's provided by our Constitution.

You cannot "sell it off" so back off now, Chump!

The worst thing you ever did was put Louis DeJoy in charge of the USPS. Well ... one of the worst.

[bagimin]

19. If he kills my pension

I'm dead.

[The Wizard]

21. The Post Office will be sold for a dollar

to Trump crony .

[bmichaelh]

26. Congress manufactured the crisis at USPS in 2006

https://ips-dc.org/how-congress-manufactured-a-postal-crisis-and-how-to-fix-it/#:~:text=In%202006%2C%20Congress%20passed%20a,75%20years%20into%20the%20future.

"In 2006, Congress passed a law that imposed extraordinary costs on the U.S. Postal Service. The Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (PAEA) required the USPS to create a $72 billion fund to pay for the cost of its post-retirement health care costs, 75 years into the future. This burden applies to no other federal agency or private corporation."

[republianmushroom]

27. If it is suck a looser, why would any private business want it ?

[louis-t]

30. Well, he did say postage price should be tripled.

How else would we pay his friends' multi-million dollar salaries?

Actually, he first said "doubled", then "tripled", then "up to 4 times." I checked.

[Kali999]

32. DeJoy

Already wrecked it. Talked to a post mistress yesterday. They had 5 employees, one retired and another moved. They didn't replace them. So 3 people are doing the work of five. And handling very heavy amazon packages since last Jan. i think she said. I got my mail sent here temporary during covid and it was excruciatingly slow. And i see the local carrier working twelve hour days. They are all making lots of overtime, seems like they are trying to break them. Rural Maine mill town

[randr]

33. First he bankrupts the system

Then he sells our property off to his billionaire cronies, then we all pay more while they get richer.
Our Postal System owns some to the most prime real-estate in the nation. We sold the PO in DC a while back and we know how well he personally profited on it in his last term.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

34. Trump never owned the Old Post Office building on Pennsylvania Avenue.

He had a lease on it.

[Martin68]

35. That's ironic considering the number of times Dump has gone bankrupt...

We should privatize his family.

[DownriverDem]

36. Not everything

is about money Donnie. Of course you wouldn't get that.

[Pesky1]

37. Whenever You See "Privatize"

Substitute "Profitize" (not a real word but that's what privatize means).

[Hekate]

40. For the hundredth time: federal agencies are not supposed to "turn a profit"

They are there to keep the country running.

I hate the orange hellbeast and his minions with the heat of a thousand suns.

[Historic NY]

41. Constitutionally mandated, his previously hire PM has gutted it even more

[LetMyPeopleVote]

42. In Trump's second term, will USPS privatization be on the table?

New reporting suggests the president-elect has expressed "a keen interest" in privatizing the U.S. Postal Service once he returns to the White House.
https://bsky.app/profile/mynewsfeed.link/post/3ldgnu6kxzw2g

In Trump’s second term, will USPS privatization be on the table?: New reporting suggests the president-elect has expressed "a keen interest" in privatizing the U.S. Postal Service once he returns to the White House

Link to tweet

UPDATE (December 16, 2024, 12:31 p.m. ET): Shortly after this report was published, Donald Trump publicly confirmed that he is, in fact, considering privatizing the U.S. Postal Service.

The United States Constitution doesn’t go into a lot of detail about specific benefits the federal government is supposed to provide to the citizenry — the document tends to rely on generalities such as promoting “the general welfare” — but Article I, Section 8 explicitly authorizes officials to “establish post offices.”

In other words, as long as there’s been a United States government, a domestic mail system has been a pillar of the American experience. There is, however, fresh reason to be concerned about that system’s future. The Washington Post reported:

President-elect Donald Trump has expressed a keen interest in privatizing the U.S. Postal Service in recent weeks, three people with knowledge of the matter said, a move that could shake up consumer shipping and business supply chains and push hundreds of thousands of federal workers out of the government.[/blockquote]

According to the Post’s reporting, which has not been independently verified by MSNBC or NBC News, the Republican has broached the subject of a Postal Service “overhaul” with several members of his team, including Howard Lutnick, his choice for commerce secretary and the co-chair of his presidential transition......

Asked about his apparent USPS disdain during a White House press briefing, Trump offered a long, meandering, hard-to-follow diatribe, in which he seemed to argue that USPS finances would be fine if it simply imposed higher rates on Amazon.com (a company Trump disliked because its owner, Jeff Bezos, also owns The Washington Post, which he also disliked).

His complaints were quickly discredited, though his scorn for the Postal Service apparently lingers.

In theory, it’s easy to imagine members of Congress having a problem with privatization plans, but in practice, let’s not forget that many congressional Republicans are on record supporting privatizing the USPS out of existence. In other words, if Trump is serious about such a plan, he might not face too much resistance on Capitol Hill, at least among GOP officials.