Trump has long pressured the Postal Service to charge Amazon more. With a loyalist as postmaster general, his wish may soon become a reality.
The president presents an award to a postal worker from Cincinnati. Photo: Bloomberg via Getty Images By installing loyalist department heads, purging inspectors general throughout the federal government, navigating around Senate confirmations by counting on permanent acting officials, or relying on his son-in-law to serve as a poor replacement for entire offices, the president has effectively turned the executive branch into a machine designed to fulfill his personal wishes.
On Wednesday, the USPS board of governors confirmed that North Carolina businessman Louis DeJoy will serve as the new postmaster general on June 15, following the expected retirement of the current head, Megan Brennan, who has clashed with the president over his longtime wish to make the independent agency charge Amazon more for using its services.
Already, the leadership at the Postal Service is frustrated with the president’s interventions, including his threat to block $10 billion in aid if the agency did not raise shipping rates for companies like Amazon.
DeJoy, the first postmaster general in two decades who is not a career USPS official, will now have to manage an agency with severe financial challenges, and may also have to respond to Trump’s pressure for the Postal Service to renegotiate with the American Postal Workers Union, one of the last remaining public-sector unions with significant pull in contract negotiations.
As New York’s Jonathan Chait summarizes the allegation, Trump’s apparent effort to “improperly use government policy to punish the owner of an independent newspaper as retribution for critical coverage” may now expand to the USPS, if DeJoy succumbs to Trump’s pressure to raise fees for delivering Amazon packages — despite the agency’s consistent pushback on Trump’s claim that the company does not pay the Postal Service enough.
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