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TRUMP AND THE USPS     

Trump’sPost Office debacle was originally an attempt to kneecap Jeff Bezos owner of the Washington Post and Amazon. Due to the Washington Post incessant ridicule of the president, only pointing out his flaws, lies and quasi-legal activities with real reporting of facts. Trump has high distain and calls the facts “fake news” when it does not conform to his pre-conceived observations. This effort was going along swimmingly as the Post Office began to pressure Amazon in its deal to deliver packaging.  In turn Bezos began its own delivery service and used USPS less. According to Trump, his main objection was the revenue loss USPS incurs due to delivery required of USPS in rural and remote locations Amazon depends on. These routes are required anyway and have always lost money for the USPS. After all, it is a Service. 

The pandemic came along and with all things Trump, when tragedy strikes opportunity comes knocking. Mail-in ballots became more important and what does the commander-in-Chief do? He declares war on the Post Office. First by installing a political operative and major campaign donor to the Trump campaign as Postmaster General. This donor, Louis Dejoy a North Carolina businessman, replaced a current Postmaster that had planned to retire in October, but was suddenly forced to leave on June 15^th. 

In an article written in Politico, when Trump was talking about the relief package he said, “The post office, if they raised the price of a package by approximately four times, it would be a whole new ballgame,” Trump said during the signing ceremony for a coronavirus relief package last month. “But they don’t want to raise it because they don’t want to insult Amazon, and they don’t want to insult other companies, perhaps, that they like. The post office should raise the price of the packages to the companies. Not to the people, to the companies. If they did that, it would be a whole different story.”

Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) chairman of the House Government Operations Subcommittee, which has jurisdiction over the Postal Service, expressed dismay at the appointment by saying, “President Trump rewards a partisan donor by installing him at the United States Postal Service” He added, “The Postal Service is in crisis and needs real leadership and someone with knowledge of the issues. This crony doesn’t cut it.”

“DeJoy is also listed as having received director fees and income from XPO Logistics, a US Postal Service competitor, but an income amount is not provided. DeJoy’s wife Wos’ assets from UPS Inc. and freight shipping company J.B. Hunt total between $116,003-$315,000. Her own assets from XPO Logistics are valued between $30 million-$75 million.  Together, DeJoy and his wife Wos may claim up to a total $75,815,000 in assets from U.S. Postal Service competitors, according to government records.”  The couple claim no conflict of interest. 

The norm in selecting a replacement for the job of Postmaster General is to pick someone from within the ranks, not a political hack with no experience on the service with an agenda to destroy the service and attempt to make it a for profit privatized enterprise.

The Republican Party for years attempted to destroy the postal service. This is not and never has been a for profit enterprise, it is a service as stated in the constitution and is the only entity specifically expressed in that sacred document. This is a blatant attempt to subvert the service. This week the Postmaster General sent a letter to 48 states that basically stated they could experience delays In delivery and should make election plans accordingly. 

Trump saw the opportunity, knowing that 80% of Democratic voters and only 25% of Republican voters plan to vote by mail.  So what does Trump do? The obvious. Delay the mail and project fraud with mail in ballots without a shred of facts. When a Pennsylvania judge was asked not to allow mail in votes due to prior fraud, he asked the Trump lawyers to show any actual evidence of fraud. Most of the current fraud are lies, rumors and innuendo, without any facts. A recent study found, only .00025% of the total votes were suspected of fraud. That’s less than 1000 votes in the 2016 election.

The dismantling of the postal service has been going on for months with removal of drop boxes and high-speed sorters (750) of them. Some of the reductions are due to the lower amounts of first class mail, as a result of the Internet. The slow-down has been intentional with removal of overtime and deliveries. The pandemic has stressed the postal service like everything else.

The current relief package offers $25 billion for USPS. This is the exact amount Trump’s Postal Services Board of Governors had recommended. The board is comprised mostly of Trump appointees. So Trump’s objection is what? A political calculation to claim fraud where there is none? To discourage mail-in voting? To slow down the delivery so that they are delivered after the election day?  With fraud accusations is it to provide an excuse for his loss?  Is he using voting as a bargaining chip in negotiations with the relief package?  Is his reluctance to deal with the Democrats due to already taking care of his Wall Street friends…so let them eat cake.

With bulk postage rates that most states use for mail in ballots, many of them may not be post marked. The postal service is not obligated to postmark the bulk rate ballots. If the ballot is delayed until after the Election Day, there is no proof of being valid and the ballot will be contested and the voter disenfranchised by Trump. This could happen to millions of mail in ballots.  Some states do count by postmark, but other states require the ballot delivered on the date of the election only. This could also disenfranchise millions more people.

Trump “will do anything” to win, as his long time fixer Michael Cohen wrote in his new book Disloyal. This is a prime example of Trump’s manipulation of government departments subverted for his own personal gain.