U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy on Monday announced he was stepping down immediately, getting ahead of what several media accounts from Washington said was a possible ouster by President Donald Trump with intent to assert greater control over the Postal Service.
Critics say DeJoy’s departure is the opening shot in a hostile takeover of the Postal Service by the Trump administration.
“Make no mistake, the postmaster general was forced out by a White House intent on breaking up and selling off the public United States Postal Service. Statements by President Trump last month and recent statements from his billionaire advisor Elon Musk made it clear that the White House has been planning for a hostile takeover of the USPS,” said Mark Diamondstein, president of the American Postal Workers Union, in a statement.
“This attack on the USPS is part of the ongoing coup by oligarchs against the vital public services APWU members and other public servants provide to the country. Privatized postal services will lead to higher postage prices, and a lower quality of service to the public,” he said.
The news comes days after DeJoy invited Trump advisor Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to root out wasteful practices. DeJoy gave his resignation notice last month, but never set a departure date as he continued to work on his multi-year reorganization plan to bring financial stability to the Postal Service.
Trump has signaled interest in consolidating power over independent agencies and has openly entertained the idea of bringing the mail system under oversight of the Commerce Department or privatizing it. It’s unclear why Trump is displeased with DeJoy, who took over nearly five years ago after a long career leading successful logistics companies and who was in the process of streamlining transportation networks and saving billions of dollars.
The Washington Post reported that DeJoy was reluctant to give full freedom to make changes, which angered Trump. Sources told the Wall Street Journal that Trump was preparing to force him out.
In December, before taking office, Trump suggested he was open to the idea of taking the Postal Service private. In public comments earlier this month, Musk said he was exploring privatizing the Postal Service.
“The law is clear that the USPS was created by Congress as an independent agency, designed to be free from shifting political winds and dedicated solely to serving the people of this country,” Diamonstein said. “The law also is clear that the USPS’ board of governors, and it alone, is empowered to hire and fire the postmaster general. Any attempt by this administration to seize power from the board of governors is unlawful and a brazen attempt to begin breaking up and selling off the public postal service to private corporations.
“The APWU calls on the board of governors to stand its ground. The board should move as quickly as possible to hire as the next permanent postmaster general someone committed to the public service mission of the USPS, who respects the rights of hardworking postal workers, and who will not break up and sell off this service that delivers to 169 million addresses,” he said.
The board of governors named Deputy Postmaster General Doug Tulino to lead the agency on an interim basis while it searches for a successor. The board said Monday it has retained the executive search firm Egon Zehnder to find DeJoy’s replacement.
“I believe strongly that the organization is well positioned and capable of carrying forward and fully implementing the many strategies and initiatives that comprise our transformation and modernization, and I have been working closely with the deputy postmaster general to prepare for this transition. While our management team and the men and women of the Postal Service have established the path toward financial sustainability and high operating performance – and we have instituted enormous beneficial change to what had been an adrift and moribund organization – much work remains that is necessary to sustain our positive trajectory,” DeJoy said in a statement.
DeJoy took over the Postal Service with a mandate to address operational inefficiencies and a financial crisis stemming from years of underinvestment and a regulatory business model that limited innovation. Under his leadership, officials at the Postal Service quickly developed a new management structure and 10-year transformation plan to put the quasipublic agency on a path toward financial sustainability and improved service delivery.
At the time, the Postal Service had 60 days of remaining cash, had incurred $90 billion in losses over two decades and had more than $20 billion in deferred facilities maintenance. Projections were for the independent agency to lose an additional $200 billion over the next decade. The Postal Service is now near break even on an operating basis.
Click here for more FreightWaves/American Shipper stories by Eric Kulisch.
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