Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s political career has been anything but normal. Around this time eight years ago, for example, he was a part of a scandal-plagued Republican National Committee finance team. Three years later, Donald Trump elevated the GOP donor to his leadership position atop the U.S. Postal Service.
DeJoy became controversial for a great many reasons, and many Democrats made little effort to hide their desire to see him go. What was less well known, however, was the president who chose him for the job wasn’t a fan, either: Trump reportedly resented the postmaster general for not doing more to curtail postal balloting during the 2020 election cycle.
Shortly before the president’s second inaugural, The Washington Post reported that Trump’s team was “vetting candidates” to succeed DeJoy, despite DeJoy not having announced any plans to step down and the fact that only the USPS board can oust a postmaster general.
Nevertheless, he apparently got the message. The Associated Press reported:
Louis DeJoy, the head of the U.S. Postal Service, intends to step down, the federal agency said Tuesday, after a nearly five-year tenure marked by the coronavirus pandemic, surges in mail-in election ballots and efforts to stem losses through cost and service cuts. In a Monday letter, Postmaster General DeJoy asked the Postal Service Board of Governors to begin looking for his successor.
The White House has not yet indicated whether Trump has settled on a successor, but it’s a process worth watching — not just because the president is likely looking for a loyalist, but also because the Republican reportedly has broader ambitions for the USPS.
As Paul Waldman wrote in an MSNBC piece published in December: Donald Trump has never liked the U.S. Postal Service. … His first term featured frequent griping, efforts to undermine its work and threats to its funding. Now, as he prepares to begin his second term, Trump is thinking about privatizing the post office altogether. If that happened, it would be a disaster for the country. And it would hit rural voters — who overwhelmingly supported Trump in all three of his elections — harder than anyone.
For his part, the president hasn’t made much of an effort to deny those plans. Asked specifically during his transition period whether he supports a privatization scheme, Trump said it’s “not the worst idea I’ve ever heard,” adding, “It’s an idea that a lot of people have talked about for a long time; we’re looking at it.” The evidence is overwhelming that such a move would hurt many of Trump’s own supporters the most, but that doesn’t mean the Republican — and his upcoming choice for postmaster general — won’t do it anyway.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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