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Trump’s USPS Takeover Plan a ‘Reckless Power Grab’ Endangering Mail-In Voting: Critics

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President Donald Trump is expected to announce plans to take over the U.S. Postal Service, an independent agency that has its roots in the U.S. Constitution, and absorb it into the Commerce Department. Congress, not the executive branch, has primary control over the USPS, although the president nominates members of the USPS Board of Governors, who must receive Senate confirmation.

Critics are calling it a “reckless power grab” and warning that it could disenfranchise the millions of Americans — nearly half of all voters — who vote by mail, and threatens to disrupt the lives of millions of Americans, especially seniors, veterans, and rural residents, who receive “about a billion shipments of prescription drugs” through the mail.

According to The Washington Post, which first broke the story, the move “would probably violate federal law,” and throw “the 250-year-old mail provider and trillions of dollars of e-commerce transactions into turmoil.”

For decades, Republicans have wanted to privatize the USPS, at one point restructuring it and forcing it to effectively “bank” a continuous 50 years’ worth of pension and health care funding, something no other agency has ever been required to do. Calling the Postal Service “essential,” President Joe Biden signed the Postal Service Reform Act of 2022—legislation that passed with massive bipartisan support—which eliminated the pre-funding requirement, providing the agency with far greater stabilization.

READ MORE: ‘Played Like a Fiddle’: RFK Jr. Signals Plan to Renege on Confirmation Commitments

President Trump for years has blasted the Postal Service, and weaponized his criticism into attacks on Amazon and its founder, Jeff Bezos, one of his prominent critics. (Bezos, who also owns The Washington Post, more recently has appeared to adopt a more supportive tone.) Amazon is one of the top customers of the Postal Service, and Trump tried to force the USPS to increase the rates that the company, one of the nation’s top retailers, has to pay.

Trump in 2018, for example, wrongly claimed that “the Post Office is losing billions of dollars … because it delivers packages for Amazon at a very below cost,” Factcheck.org reported. “He also said taxpayers are ‘subsidizing’ Amazon’s deliveries, but the U.S. Postal Service does not receive any federal funds for its operating costs and hasn’t since 1982.”

The Postal Service’s governing board, “is planning to fight Trump’s order, three of those people told The Washington Post,” the paper reported. “In an emergency meeting Thursday, the board retained outside counsel and gave instructions to sue the White House if the president were to remove members of the board or attempt to alter the agency’s independent status.”

“This is a somewhat regal approach that says the king knows better than his subjects and he will do his best for them. But it also removes any sense that there’s oversight, impartiality and fairness and that some states wouldn’t be treated better than other states or cities better than other cities,” James O’Rourke, who studies the Postal Service at the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business, told the Post. “The anxiety over the Postal Service is not only three-quarters of a million workers. It’s that this is something that does not belong to the president or the White House. It belongs to the American people.”

CRITICS RESPOND

Critics immediately blasted President Trump upon hearing news of his plans to take over the Postal Service.

“Now he’ll control mail-in voting. Right out of the autocrat’s playbook,” remarked journalist and author Craig Crawford.

“This is insane,” declared U.S. Rep. Mike Levin (D-CA). “Now Trump wants to seize the Postal Service, dismantle its independence, and throw mail delivery into chaos. This isn’t reform—it’s an incompetent, reckless power grab. We will use every tool at our disposal to fight back.”

“USPS, despite its faults, delivers hundreds of millions of pieces of mail on a *daily* basis, and as a small percentage of that volume, is also the literal backbone of our entire elections, voter registration, and political campaigning system in America,” observed Nick Lima, Registrar/Director of Elections for the City of Cranston, Rhode Island.

READ MORE: ‘You Capitulated to Russia’: Vance Rant on America’s ‘Androgynous’ Masculinity Draws Fire

“Taking over the USPS would be plainly contrary to the 1970 Postal Service law. Is the President is betting he can do it and that Congress will do nothing & that maybe the SCOTUS will declare the 1970 statute’s method of appointing the PMG [Postmaster General] unconstitutional?” noted Dr. Kevin R. Kosar, a senior fellow at the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he studies the U.S. Congress, the administrative state, American politics, election reform, and the U.S. Postal Service.

“The Postal Service is one of the largest employers of Veterans in the country. Hundreds of thousands of Veterans rely on USPS to deliver medications, benefits, and critical information. We won’t stand by and let this happen. We WILL fight this!” announced the progressive political action committee (PAC) VoteVets.

TRUMP, COVID, AND THE USPS

During the summer of 2020, during President Trump’s first term, as the COVID-19 pandemic raged, many more Americans turned to the Postal Service to obtain their prescription medications.

Documenting that phenomenon, Popular Science, citing Michael Pignone, a doctor in the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Texas’s Dell Medical School, reported that the USPS is “part of the healthcare system.”

“You can think of the post office as just this incredibly well-distributed last-mile logistics network,” Pignone said. “There are all kinds of possibilities of what the postal service can do.”

WIRED magazine, also in 2020, reported on the ” little-known Postal Plan, which dates back to the Clinton era,” that “charges mail carriers with delivering critical supplies—like vaccines—as a last resort.” It also cited “a little-known Obama administration plan, ‘Executive Order 13527: Medical Countermeasures Following a Biological Attack,'” where “it would fall to the Postal Service to be the first-line responders to a widespread biological terror incident—think an anthrax attack, where the post office shows up at your door with Cipro. Those plans could potentially be dusted off to help respond to disease epidemic or pandemic.”

In its report on Trump’s plans to take over the Postal Service, The Washington nPost also noted that “Republicans have grown wary of [outgoing Postmaster General] DeJoy and the Postal Service’s close ties to the Biden administration. The two partnered to deliver nearly 1 billion coronavirus test kits, the largest expansion of postal capabilities in a generation, and to fund a fleet of more than 60,000 electric mail delivery vehicles, though those were plagued by delivery delays.”

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Trump had one of the worst responses compared to other similar nations. He infamously begged officials to slow down testing for the coronavirus, and said, “by having more tests, we have more cases.”

READ MORE: ‘Cowardice’: GOP Faces Backlash After Report Suggests Death Threat May Have Swayed Vote

 

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News

Trump: ‘We’re Bringing Back God’

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5 hours ago

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January 23, 2026

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President Donald Trump delivered a forceful message to attendees at the March for Life rally in Washington, D.C.

In pre-recorded remarks, the president told the anti-abortion gathering, “under the Trump administration, we’re strongly defending religious liberty, we’re bringing back faith in America.”

“We bringing back God,” Trump declared.

Having praised the end of the constitutional right to abortion, Trump said, “the work to rebuild a culture that supports life continues in every state, every community, and every part of our beautiful land.”

“This is a battle that must be fought, must be won, not only in the corridors of power, but, above all, in the hearts and souls of the people,” he continued, suggesting a desire to end all abortion in the United States.

“We have stopped forced taxpayer funding of abortion at home and abroad, we’re championing faith-based adoption and foster care, and supporting our parents by investing $1,000 into an account that will grow over time for every newborn baby.”

READ MORE: ‘Good Chance’ Trump Will Be Electorally ‘Humiliated’ in November: Carville

Vice President JD Vance told attendees, “let the record show you have a vice president who practices what he preaches,” before announcing that he and his wife Usha are expecting their fourth child, as Fox News reported. “And it will be our third baby boy. So, we’ll take whatever prayers you can give. We certainly need them.”

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson also spoke at the rally, declaring that Republican policies “support” American families.

“Republicans are working hard to deliver on the mandate you gave us in the last election, to make it easier than ever before, to raise a family in this great country of ours. And because we know that support for American families doesn’t end at birth, our policies reflect this.”

Critics challenged Johnson’s claim.

Health care activist Melanie D’Arrigo remarked that Republicans offer no universal health care, paid family leave, universal childcare, a living wage as a minimum wage, affordable housing, or tuition-free public college, but, she said, they have rolled back labor laws, gutted food assistance, and deregulated food safety.

READ MORE: Trump Promotes His Triumphal Arch as Millions Face Massive Storm

 

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Trump Promotes His Triumphal Arch as Millions Face Massive Storm

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7 hours ago

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January 23, 2026

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Americans in more than half the country are bracing for “hazardous ice, heavy snow and brutal cold” from a storm that a National Weather Service forecaster has predicted will be “crippling.” A potentially “catastrophic” ice storm is headed for the Southeast, and at least 14 states across the country have already declared a state of emergency.

The “potentially historic, massive winter storm will slam more than half of the United States today, moving east as it brings heavy snow, widespread ice accumulation and dangerous cold,” NBC News reported. “Up to a foot of snow is likely on the northern side of the system from Oklahoma to Massachusetts, according to the National Weather Service.”

About 1,300 flights have already been canceled ahead of the storm that is expected to hit 40 states across the nation.

Business Insider reported, “Americans strip store shelves bare as millions brace for a potentially historic storm.”

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump on Friday morning took the opportunity to mock what he called “Environmental Insurrectionists,” as he asked, “whatever happened to global warming???”

READ MORE: ‘Blitzkrieg Against Public Opinion’: Columnist Calls Trump’s Agenda a ‘Cry for Help’

Hours later, Trump posted to Truth Social artist’s renderings of his Triumphal Arch, which he wants built in Washington, D.C, near the Lincoln Memorial — with a start date of sometime in February. He wants it completed by Independence Day for the nation’s 250th anniversary celebration.

“It hasn’t started yet. It starts sometime in the next two months. It’ll be great. Everyone loves it,” Trump told Politico in December. “They love the ballroom too. But they love the Triumphal Arch.”

Last month, President Trump revealed what the White House’s top domestic policy goal is. The president shared with attendees at a Sunday holiday party that the “primary thing” for the head of his Domestic Policy Council, Vince Haley, is building Trump’s dream arch in Washington, D.C.

“Vince is unbelievable on policy. And we have a policy thing that’s going to be unbelievable happening,” Trump said of the proposed arch, as The Daily Beast reported.

READ MORE: ‘Good Chance’ Trump Will Be Electorally ‘Humiliated’ in November: Carville

“It’s something that is so special. Uh, it will be like the one in, in Paris, but to be honest with you, it blows it away. Blows it away in every way,” Trump said. “And Vince came in one day and his eyes were teeming. I mean, he couldn’t believe how beautiful it was. He saw it and he wanted to do that. That’s your primary thing.”

Critics slammed the president for focusing on his arch while ordinary Americans are struggling.

Patriot Takes, a social media account with nearly half a million followers, blasted the president, sarcastically saying he “is laser focused on things that matter to the American people.”

READ MORE: Sean Duffy’s DC IndyCar Grand Prix Dream Is Stalling
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‘Blitzkrieg Against Public Opinion’: Columnist Calls Trump’s Agenda a ‘Cry for Help’

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9 hours ago

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January 23, 2026

By

President Donald Trump’s coalition is “falling apart,” according to columnist Matt K. Lewis, who writes at The Hill that Trump’s list of accomplishments seems more like “a cry for help.”

Pointing to Trump’s rapid subject-changing, Lewis noted that the president kicked off the new year by invading Venezuela and capturing Nicolás Maduro.

“From there, things escalated briskly,” he wrote. “He defended an ICE agent who shot and killed a protester in Minneapolis named Renee Good. He threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act. He threatened to take Greenland — possibly by force. He threatened to slap tariffs on European allies over Greenland. He suggested his failure to win the Nobel Peace Prize justified taking Greenland. And he almost failed to issue any acknowledgment of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, waiting until bedtime to do so.”

Lewis says that while somewhere there is a “constituency” for each of these individual actions, “taken together, they resemble a blitzkrieg against public opinion.”

READ MORE: Sean Duffy’s DC IndyCar Grand Prix Dream Is Stalling

He summed up Trump’s low poll numbers and concluded, “America has seen this movie before, has been reminded of how it ends, and is already edging toward the exit.”

So, if the 2024 election held today, it’s “not at all clear” that Trump would win. he said, in part because “Trump’s winning coalition was so sprawling and incoherent that pleasing one group would automatically enrage another.”

So what’s happened in the past year?

“Trump is very good at campaigning and very bad at governing. This explains almost everything that has happened since he took office one year ago this week, including the nation’s rising consumption of Rolaids.”

Disappointment from the “newer members of his coalition” came from “the ultimate realization that Trump’s most electorally appealing promises — such as lowering grocery prices on day one — are never actually going to happen. Indeed, Trump’s policies — tariffs, for example — were almost custom-made to increase grocery prices, which is generally frowned upon by people who eat.”

As it turns out, “Trump’s true superpower … only works when he is not actually in charge.”

READ MORE: ‘Good Chance’ Trump Will Be Electorally ‘Humiliated’ in November: Carville

 

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