Postal workers in the US have accused the Trump administration of planning “a hostile takeover” of the United States Postal Service (USPS) after the sudden resignation of its postmaster general, Louis DeJoy.
DeJoy announced on Monday (March 24) that he was leaving his role heading the service with immediate effect after nearly five years in charge.
The sudden departure of DeJoy, who was put in his post by Donald Trump during the Trump’s first presidency, immediately drew speculation that he was forced out of the job to allow Trump to push ahead with privatization plans.
“Make no mistake, Louis DeJoy was forced out by a presidential administration that is intent on breaking up and selling off the public postal service,” said Mark Dimondstein, president of the American Postal Workers Union (APWU).
‘The oligarchs’ coup’
Dimondstein said that recent media reports “made clear that the White House has plans for a hostile takeover of the postal service,” which Dimondstein claimed were part of “the ongoing oligarchs’ coup against the vital public services.”
The Trump administration has already signaled its intent to make changes at the agency, with DeJoy sending a letter to Congress earlier this month in which he said he planned to cut 10,000 workers and billions of dollars from the USPS budget by working with Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) headed by Elon Musk.
While Trump has not said explicitly that he plans to privatize the agency, last December he told an interviewer that privatising the USPS “was not the worst idea,” and was something that his team “was looking at.” Trump first pushed for privatization during his first term in office.
Commerce Department merger
