The Danger of Trump’s Plan for a Private USPS

“To me, DOGE is a question of billionaire oligarchs trying to figure out how to get more money into their private profits.”

Alex Nguyen /Mother Jones

At a December 2024 press conference in Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump said his administration would be looking into privatizing the United States Postal Service, renewing efforts from his first presidential term to limit government programs and services. The Washington Post reported that same month that Trump stated the government should not subsidize the agency due to its annual financial losses. 

“The days of bailouts and handouts are over,” House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) said during a December 2024 hearing with Postmaster General Louis DeJoy. “The American people spoke loud and clear…there’s going to be significant reform over the next four years.” 

To understand more about what’s happening with USPS and get a better sense of where calls for government cuts are coming from, I talked with Mark Dimondstein, the president of the American Postal Workers Union. The union represents over 200,000 USPS employees and retirees.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

The Trump administration and groups like DOGE are pushing for more cuts to the federal government. For USPS, the argument seems to be that the mail system loses money and is no longer relevant, and therefore, should be curtailed. What do you think about this perspective?

To me, DOGE is a question of billionaire oligarchs trying to figure out how to get more money into their private profits. So all of this stuff about efficiency is really a cover for that, and that also carries over to those who want to privatize the Post Office. The Post Office takes in about $80 billion a year in revenue. Those on the private side of the industry want their hands on that money because when it’s in the public domain, they can’t use it to generate private profits.