Donald Trump is trying to kill the U.S. Postal Service. When members of Congress tried to include funding for the agency in the coronavirus stimulus, the White House made clear that it was a dealbreaker for Trump. Without additional funding, the USPS may not be able to operate past June, cutting off rural communities from deliveries and many people from their prescription medications as well as endangering the jobs of a 600,000-person workforce that includes many veterans and people of color.
Here’s something else about the Postal Service: It’s the most popular agency in the federal government, a 2019 Pew survey found. Nine out of 10 people have a favorable opinion of the Postal Service—and it’s bipartisan, with 87% favorability from Republicans. The National Park Service, NASA, and the CDC were the only other agencies at 80% or above.
Killing off or privatizing the USPS is a longstanding Republican goal, but Trump brings something extra special and personal to it: his hatred of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Many Amazon packages are delivered by the Postal Service, and Trump thinks it should charge Amazon more money for that service, because Bezos owns The Washington Post, which has run reporting Trump doesn’t like.
But we need the Postal Service now more than ever, because we need vote-by-mail for the 2020 elections. Unfortunately, for Trump, that’s an additional reason to oppose funding the Postal Service, because democracy scares him. As he put it, “you’d never have a Republican elected in this country again.”
Sign and send the petition to your members of Congress: Save the U.S. Postal Service, before it’s too late.