NEW YORK — The Trump administration is considering steps that could give it more control over the independent US Postal Service, according to multiple published reports. It’s a move that could upend how Americans get critical deliveries, including online purchases, prescription drugs, checks, and vote-by-mail ballots.
The Washington Post first reported late Thursday, citing numerous anonymous sources, that President Donald Trump planned to disband the US Postal Service’s Board of Governors and place the agency under direct control of the Commerce Department and Secretary Howard Lutnick. The Wall Street Journal also Friday reported on the plan to dissolve the commission, citing government officials.
The Postal Service did not respond to requests for comment. But a White House official denied that Trump planned to sign such an order.
“This is not true. No such EO (executive order) is in the works, and Secretary Lutnick is not pushing for such an EO,” a White House official told CNN.
However the denial from the White House was silent on the question as to whether it is interested in privatizing the service, which is something that Trump has voiced support for in the past.
The Post reported that the governing board is taking the threat of it being disbanded seriously enough that it held an emergency meeting Thursday to retain outside counsel with instructions to sue the White House if the president were to remove members of the board or attempt to alter the agency’s independent status.
Trump has already moved to fire other members of governing federal agencies, such as the National Labor Relations Board and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, leaving those agencies without the minimum number of members needed to act to provide protections to members of the public.
Other countries have privatized their postal services. But a plan to privatize the 250-year old service that predates the formation of the United States, could dramatically change the way Americans receive deliveries, and even who would be able to get service. Current law requires the USPS to deliver to all addresses, even rural ones that are too costly for a private business to serve profitably. Even many online purchases handled by private companies such as United Parcel Service depend upon the the Postal Service to handle the “last mile” of delivery to homes.
In December, then President-elect Trump said privatizing the USPS is “not the worst idea I’ve ever heard.”
“It’s an idea that a lot of people have liked for a long time,” Trump said at a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. “We’re looking at it.” Trump dropped previous plans to try to privatize the service in 2018 during his first term.
But it’s unlikely Trump would be able to privatize the agency without Congressional approval, given the many federal laws that control the quasi-independent service. Among those laws is the one requiring universal delivery, as well as one outlawing a strike by USPS employees. With a 630,000-person workforce, 91% of whom are covered by union contracts, the USPS is the nation’s largest unionized employer.
Whether those laws would remain in place in a privatized Postal Service is unknown.
One of the service’s major unions, the American Postal Workers Union, issued a statement blasting the idea of disbanding the board of governors or privatization.
“It would be an outrageous, unlawful attack on a storied national treasure, enshrined in the Constitution and created by Congress to serve every American home and business equally,” said the statement from the 200-member union. “Any attack on the Postal Service would be part of the billionaire oligarch coup, directed not just at the postal workers our union represents, but the millions of Americans who rely on the critical public service our members provide every single day.”
The service has been losing money for years but it recently reported $144 million in net income for the final three months of 2024.
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