President-elect Donald Trump is reportedly looking to privatize the U.S. Postal Service (USPS), three people familiar with the matter told The Washington Post in a report published Sunday.
Trump has made known his desire to detach the USPS from the federal government in conversations at his Mar-a-Lago estate, sources informed the outlet, including with Howard Lutnick, his commerce secretary pick and co-chair of his presidential transition team.
REPORT: Trump Has Been Discussing Privatization Of The @USPS With His Choice For @CommerceGov Secretary.
The Postal Service Lost An Unbelievable $9.5 BILLION In The 2024 Fiscal Year That Ended Sept. 30.
That’s Up From A $6.5 BILLION Loss In 2023.
The Agency, Which Had A Total… pic.twitter.com/XRThbex5lu— John Basham (@JohnBasham) December 14, 2024
In early December, Trump also talked with a group of transition team officials to feel out their opinions on privatizing the agency, one person told the outlet.
As mail volume declines for the Postal Service, the agency has reportedly lost $9.5 billion in the fiscal year ending on Sept. 30, The Washington Post reported.
The outlet expressed concern regarding the potential effect on e-commerce of privatizing the Postal Service, naming Amazon, whose executive chairman Jeff Bezos reportedly plans to donate $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund. Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post. (RELATED: Big Tech Company Follows Zuckerberg’s Example, Also Gives $1,000,000 To Trump Inaugural Fund)
As the Christmas season of mailing cards and packages approaches, the USPS, which many view as inefficient, has become a potential target of the incoming president’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Although DOGE co-leaders Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have yet to publicly call for the privatization of the agency, it falls in line with their mission.
Members of the DOGE panel have reportedly “held preliminary conversations about major changes to the Postal Service,” according to the Washington Post.
Privatization of the USPS has become a “prominent target” of federal cost-cutting as Republican lawmakers and Trump allies plan major reforms, the outlet noted.
Republican Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the incoming chair of the DOGE subcommittee, said Friday on X that the USPS wasting money “has to stop.”
Here’s another HUGE waste of money by the USPS!
$10 BILLION for electric postal trucks adding up to around $166K each.
The defense contractor was supposed to build 80 a day but has only made 93 in almost two year.
This is a Democrat Green New Deal scam that’s throwing your… pic.twitter.com/GXOxDCHJKP
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) December 13, 2024
The Postal Service only received 93 Oshkosh trucks as part of the Biden-Harris administration’s multibillion dollar plan to give 60,000 electric vehicles to the federal agency in the name of climate change, the Washington Post reported Saturday.
The Postal Service was established roughly one year before the country in 1775. Benjamin Franklin was appointed as the first U.S. Postmaster General.
The Daily Caller reached out to the USPS and the Trump transition team for comment, but did not hear back.
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