Donald Trump just gave away his real reason for trying to squeeze the Post Office – and it’s not about the election
Because Donald Trump has been trying to put the financial squeeze on the Post Office, alarmists have interpreted this as a sign that Trump is somehow magically going to be able to get rid of the Post Office before the election, so no one can vote by mail. Trump isn’t within a million miles of having the political muscle to kill the Post Office – but today he did give away his actual motivation.
If you’re a Palmer Report regular reader, you already know why Donald Trump is trying to squeeze the Post Office. It’s the same reason the Republican Party has been trying to squeeze the Post Office for years on end now. UPS and FedEx hate that the Post Office is able to offer Priority Mail shipping at a fairly low price. So they donate to Trump and the GOP, with the expectation that they’ll force the Post Office to raise Priority Mail pricing.
When Trump called the Post Office a “joke” today, he insisted that “the Post Office should raise the price of a package by approximately four times.” In other words, the increasingly loose lipped Trump just gave away precisely what his marching orders from UPS and FedEx are. They don’t want the Post Office gone. They don’t want the responsibility of delivering letters. They just want the Post Office to be in such a dire financial situation, it has to make up for it by charging as much for Priority Mail as UPS and FedEx charge for package shipping.
Unlike most government agencies, the Post Office has a significant revenue stream. It pays for itself, so it can’t be shut down simply by having its “funding” taken away. Trump and the GOP have been placing bizarre pension requirements on the Post Office so it’ll struggle financially – but even these restrictions won’t magically put the Post Office out of business. Trump knows this. This isn’t about somehow magically making the election go away. It’s about doing his wealthy donors’ corrupt bidding, as usual.
