The top GOP donor who Donald Trump installed as Postmaster General has had one giant-sized conflict of interest in the background as he goes about hamstringing the ability of the U.S. Postal Service to meet the demands of its customers, according to the New York Times.
That conflict of interest goes beyond Louis DeJoy’s recent work as a chief executive and board member of XPO, a $16 billion logistics and transportation company that helps the Postal Service increase its capacity during busy periods such as the holidays. That conflict also goes beyond the $25 million to $50 million stake DeJoy continues to hold in that company. And it definitely goes beyond the $1.2 million to $7 million in income he earned last year from his holdings in the company.
In fact, DeJoy's conflict is arguably as much emotional as it is financial. DeJoy sold the logistics company that he built from the ground up—around 10 employees in the 1980s to some 7,000 employees by 2014—to XPO for $615 million in 2014. In other words, XPO, where DeJoy continued to serve as a board director until 2018, is the keeper of his life's work, which was called New Breed Logistics.
So not only does XPO potentially benefit if the Postal Service needs more help absorbing any demand it can't fulfill, one could also imagine XPO being positioned to take a chunk of USPS business if, for instance, Trump and his GOP cronies made efforts to privatize the service. DeJoy also earned millions of dollars in rent through XPO leases in buildings that he owns, according to documents filed with the Office of Government Ethics.
Certainly, XPO and DeJoy's continuing financial stake in the company will be a point of inquiry when DeJoy heads to the Hill to testify before both the the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Friday and the House Oversight Committee next week.
