Trump Not Planning to Take Control of US Postal Service: White House

A US Postal Service (USPS) post office near Los Angeles International Airport on Feb. 5, 2025. Patrick T. Fallon / AFP

President Donald Trump is not planning to take control of the U.S. Postal Service (USPS), the White House said on Feb. 21.

There is no executive order in the works that would dissolve the USPS Board of Governors and place the agency under the control of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, a White House spokesman told The Epoch Times in an email.

Lutnick is also not advocating for such an order, the spokesman said.

Some Democrats this week expressed concern that Trump could dissolve the board, which has eight members and is similar to a board of directors at a private corporation.

“If President Trump moves forward with this action to take over and privatize the Postal Service—not only will it be completely illegal—it will harm veterans, small business owners, rural communities, and all Americans who depend on the Postal Service for timely and reliable mail delivery,” Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said in a statement.

The USPS is an independent agency run by a board that makes decisions on its operations. Members, who are appointed by presidents, select postmaster generals.

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, who took the position during Trump’s first term, announced recently he plans to step down and asked the board to start the process of choosing his successor.

The USPS is supposed to be funded by its own revenue. But it has repeatedly faced funding problems, and Congress has repeatedly provided chunks of money to the agency. Then-President Joe Biden signed a law in 2022 that removed some requirements the agency said were causing problems, such as the requirement that mail has to be delivered six days a week, and provided some $50 billion in financial relief.

Trump, after being elected, floated the possibility of privatizing the USPS, calling it “not the worst idea” he’s ever heard.

“We’re looking at it,” he said.

The White House in a plan for government reform released during Trump’s first term said that the Postal Service’s financing needed major changes.

“One successful model of Postal reform internationally has been to transition to a model of private management and private or shared ownership,” it said.

Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), the top Democrat on the House of Representatives Oversight Committee, said on Wednesday that privatizing the USPS would be “an attack on Americans’ access to critical information, benefits, and life-saving medical care.”

Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated Howard Lutnick’s cabinet position. He is commerce secretary. The Epoch Times regrets the error.