Trump Administration Live Updates: Latest news about the budget plan, Elon Musk and more

Many see the efforts as a possibility for the Trump government, finally trying to privatize the postal service, which Mr. Trump previously said he had considered. This potential interested party alerted union officials, interest groups and democratic legislators who say that the sale or conclusion of the contract of important aspects of the service could increase thousands of postal workers or increase prices for customers. Opponents also say that the efforts would disproportionately influence the rural communities, where it is less profitable for private companies to deliver mail.

“We believe that this would lead to a spiral of death for everything that is left,” said Brian L. Renfroe, the President of the National Association of Letter Carriers. “People in rural areas would be particularly difficult.”

A takeover of the postal service could also repeat the concerns about the control of the submission of mail-in votes during the national elections. In 2020, Mr. Trump accused himself of deliberately trying to manipulate the submission of ballot papers in democratic areas during pandemic during the pandemic.

Millions of Americans vote by post and born on the post office to hand over their ballot papers through the coordination periods.

On Friday, Mr. Trump said that the White House would look at a “form of a fusion” to turn over the financial losses of the postal service, even though he said the agency would “remain the postal service”. Mr. Trump said that Minister of Commerce Howard Lutnick, who had a “great business instinct”, would help with the efforts.

“We want to have a post office that works well and does not lose massive amounts of money,” said Trump. “I think it will work much better than over the years. It was just an enormous loser for this country. “

Mr. Trump’s comments came after the Washington Post reported last week that he was preparing to issue an executive order, released the members of the agency’s government committee and relocated the postal service as part of the trade department.

For Mr. Trump, the postal service is a politically rich goal that can be followed. The employees are mainly organized workers who have aggressively campaigned against the privatization of America by Swiss Post.

The government’s request to open up the postal service takes place because the agency continues to exist and a falling postal volume. In the 2024 financial year, the service lost 9.5 billion US dollars, compared to $ 6.5 billion in the previous year. The agency recently achieved more promising finance results and made a profit in the first quarter of the financial year.

Legal and post experts said that the move of the Trump government would most likely violate the law. Anne Joseph O’Connell, a professor at Stanford University, said that the agency’s folding into the trade department would violate the 1970 post-reorganization law Independent agency, which was led by a governor council and consists of up to nine governors, which are appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate.

“You would need the permission of the congress,” said Ms. O’Connell.

Mr. Trump’s plans contaminated by Mr. Trump and democratic legislators who have expressed concerns about the potential effects of millions of Americans across the country who are dependent on the agency.

“This short -sighted effort will not help to improve the delivery service or to put the postal service on a path of tax sustainability,” House Democrat wrote in a letter in the supervisory committee on Saturday. “Instead, it could subdue the postal service and the entire mail network in political interference, change the priorities of administrations and jump the prices.”

The postal service did not respond to inquiries about comments.

The efforts to privatize the post office could lead to a deterioration in service quality in rural areas, since private companies are less excited to deliver these communities, said James S. O’Rourke, professor of management and organization at the University of Notre Dame, the studied the postal service.

“Herr. Trump spoke about Amazon, UPS and Fedex, but they probably don’t want a third of what the US mail service delivers,” said O’Rourke.

The “universal service obligation” of the postal service requires the agency to deliver to all in the United States at a reasonable price, even though the mandate is vaguely defined. The agency delivers around 167 million addresses and covers every state, every city and city.

Mr. O’Rourke said that he was also concerned about the potential effects on the submission of mail-in voting and whether the Trump administration would continue the service if it checked the postal service.

“I think this is very worrying because many were delivered in the last elections,” said O’Rourke. “The president has vigorously criticized the vote by post in recent years.”

Some Republican legislators said that important changes are necessary to stabilize the agency and praised Mr. Trump’s ambitions. “It is no secret that I am a great critic of the catastrophic way of how the USPS was led,” said representative Rich McCormick, Republican of Georgia, in a statement. “It’s time for some big changes and I welcome President Trump to solve this problem with solutions outside the box.”

In the past few months, both Democrats and Republicans have beaten up the Generalpostmeister, Louis Dejoy, because of a failed attempt to improve finance and the service of the agency. Last week Mr. Dejoy announced that after more than four years in the role of “thinking about the next phase of my life”.

Mr. Dejoy was the face of a large 10-year modernization plan that the post office introduced in early 2021. The plan called Delivering for America included consolidating places, increased prices and extended promised delivery times.

The plan had initially predicted that the postal service would break out by the 2023 financial year. However, the agency has continued to lose money, which has attributed post -management to high inflation, increased labor costs and a lack of administrative measures that would adapt the agency’s pension costs. Although the agency has received some federal relieves in recent years, it generally does not receive any taxpayers’ money for operating costs and instead is based on revenue from sales.

The postal service also has to deal with the service decline. In the 2024 financial year, 81 percent of the one-piece first-class letters and postcards were delivered on time, which reflects the post-category that the households use most frequently. According to the agency’s goal, this was due to 88 percent in the previous year and under the aim of the agency of 92 percent.

Some who carefully observed the postal service said there were signs that the agency’s finances improved. They also emphasized that his leaders had left for a few more years to complete the modernization plan.

“It’s not all dark and stupid,” said Mark Dimondstein, the President of the American Postal Workers Union, who represents more than 200,000 Post Service employees and pensioners. “If this administration wants to help finance, there are simple ways to do this, apart from the fact that you have a coup d’état.”