Could Trump Privatize the Postal Service? What to Know As He Considers Major USPS Changes

 President-elect Donald Trump said Monday he’s considering trying to privatize the U.S. Postal Service, confirming recent reporting by The Washington Post, as the president-elect has long eyed making major cuts to the federal agency—that may now be possible in his second term.

Privatizing USPS is “not the worst idea I’ve ever heard,” Trump told reporters at a press conference Monday, saying his team was “looking at it,” after the Post reported Trump had discussed privatizing the agency with Commerce Secretary nominee Howard Lutnick.

Members of Trump’s “Department of Government Efficiency” run by billionaires Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy had also held “preliminary conversations about major changes” to USPS, the Post reported, and Musk seemingly endorsed privatization on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Monday, responding “yes” to a post that called for privatizing the agency and letting Americans opt out of receiving physical mail.

It’s still unclear what concrete steps Trump could take to make sweeping changes to USPS, though Reuters previously reported Trump’s transition team is considering canceling the agency’s contracts for a new fleet of electric mail trucks.

USPS is part of the federal government even though it’s predominantly self-funded, and has a universal service obligation to provide affordable and uniform service everywhere in the country, even in more remote geographic locations.

Trump during his first presidential term threatened to privatize the agency and has long decried it—calling it a “joke”—though his administration ultimately never made any major moves to make USPS private after facing bipartisan opposition.

Other Republicans have also started ramped up criticism of USPS in recent weeks, with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., saying “poor management” of the agency is “costing taxpayers billions” and Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., arguing at a recent House Oversight Committee hearing there are aspects of USPS’ operations “that would be better left to the private sector.”

USPS has not yet responded to a request for comment on Trump’s remarks Monday, but the agency pointed to its recent efforts to decrease costs in a statement to the Post and said it “is already engaged in an initiative to ensure that we can provide our customers with a high level of service to every delivery address in the nation at least 6-days-a-week in an efficient and financially sustainable fashion as required by law.”

Fully privatizing USPS or ending its universal service obligation would likely take an act of Congress, and it’s unclear if there would be enough support from Republicans to do so. Many GOP lawmakers represent rural districts that rely on the Postal Service’s universal service mandate, though while there was bipartisan opposition to privatization during Trump’s first term, it remains to be seen if enough right-wing lawmakers would still be willing to push back against Trump should he propose it again in the coming months. The incoming president could have wide latitude to force reforms on USPS even without Congress, however, the Post suggested, even if he can’t privatize it entirely. Trump appears poised to exert significant influence over the agency’s board of governors, which oversees USPS and can impose sweeping reforms. Two Trump appointees already serve on the nine-person board, and there are three vacancies on the board that appear unlikely to be filled by the time President Joe Biden leaves office, potentially giving Trump a majority of appointees who could sign off on his vision for the agency. The USPS is also reliant on federal loans from the Treasury Department, which the Post notes Trump could try to withhold unless the agency falls in line with changes he wants it to make.

Overhauling USPS to make it a privatized operation would likely raise prices for mail and packages and could result in decreased service, both critics and proponents of the plan have noted, as putting an emphasis on revenue over universal service could mean cost-cutting moves that result in fewer days of mail deliveries, longer mail delivery timelines or less access to USPS services in sparsely populated rural areas that aren’t as profitable. It could also impact Amazon deliveries, the Post notes, as the e-commerce giant often relies on USPS to provide “last-mile” delivery directly to customers’ homes, as well as e-commerce shipping that relies on USPS and business supply chains more broadly. Proponents of privatization have pointed to the fact that it could help USPS’ long-running financial issues, as it would mean the agency would now be able to accept private capital funds and raise prices, rather than remain reliant on government loans, and could allow the Postal Service to innovate more and implement better technology than when it’s subject to a lower budget and governmental scrutiny.

Democrats have already started opposing any efforts to privatize USPS. “Privatizing the Postal Service would have disastrous consequences for the Americans and businesses who rely on USPS every day,” Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., a major USPS advocate in Congress, said on X on Monday. “When you go private, the profit motive is everything.

Trump’s potential effort to privatize USPS comes even as it would likely hurt many of his own supporters the most, as rural areas that are most reliant on the agency’s universal service obligations went primarily for the president-elect.

$9.5 billion. That’s how much money USPS lost in fiscal year 2024, the agency reported in November, up from a net loss of $6.5 billion in 2023. The agency—which has long struggled financially—attributed those losses to factors like retirement pensions and an increase in compensation for some workers.

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, who runs USPS, was widely criticized by the left ahead of the 2020 election for being a Trump donor and ally, sparking fears he could affect the election by stymying ballot delivery. The Post reports DeJoy is now “not beloved” among Trump and his team, however, after the postmaster general sparked “significant anger” for boosting mail-in voting.

USPS’ long history of financial issues have made the Postal Service into a bigger political topic in recent years, between Trump’s frequent attacks on the agency and DeJoy taking control of it in the summer of 2020 and imposing reforms with the aim of fixing the agency’s finances. Democrats became angry at DeJoy ahead of the 2020 election for implementing a series of changes at the agency that slowed down mail delivery, which ultimately resulted in court rulings ordering the changes to be reversed. While mail delivery during the 2020 election ultimately played out without conflict, DeJoy has remained a controversial figure, enacting a cost-cutting plan at USPS that lawmakers from both parties have decried for negatively impacting service. Congress passed legislation in 2022 aimed at combating the agency’s financial issues while also improving service, but DeJoy has pressed on with cost-cutting measures, with the Post reporting in August that USPS was considering a plan to slow down mail delivery in rural areas. Lawmakers from both parties expressed displeasure with DeJoy during congressional hearings in December as they bemoaned his cost-cutting measures resulting in their constituents facing mail delays, with Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., telling DeJoy, “I hate this plan and I’m going to do everything I can to kill it.”