Trump moves to take control of US Postal Service, put it under Commerce Dept: report

The move from the Trump administration would see the USPS absorbed and controlled by the Commerce Department under the Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, two officials told the Wall Street Journal. USPS is expected to push back on the efforts, the outlet reported. In December, Trump said during a speech in Mar-a-Lago that he was thinking about taking the agency private.

Postmaster General Louis De Joy said that he would be stepping down this week after going halfway into a 10-year term. The officials told the outlet that Trump has considered removing DeJoy from the role. The White House said that no such move was being planned.

Democrats have condemned the expected move from the Trump administration, with Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA) saying that “The US Postal Service is wildly popular with the American people, and its service is essential and irreplaceable. Beyer called the move “unconstitutional and corrupt,” and said it would be “brazenly illegal.”

“If the rumors are true, firing the Postal Service’s Board of Governors and transferring control is an outrageous and unlawful hostile takeover, essentially a raid on an independently operated public institution,” President of the American Postal Workers Union Mark Dimondstein said. The union has around 200,000 employees involved in USPS.

USPS has been in decline for years due to a drop in volume from competitors in the private market and has been hemorrhaging cash. In Fiscal Year 2024, the agency had a net loss of $9.5 billion. The agency does not rely on government funds, but relies on postage as well as other products for cash flow.