'The Privatizers Are Coming': DeJoy Is Gone, But US Postal Service Not Safe From Trump and Musk

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy officially left office on Monday, but defenders of the U.S. Postal Service said the long-awaited departure of its reviled chief administrator does not mean the nation's public mail service is safe from the threat of privatization which they warn remains the goal of President Donald Trump and right-wing allies like Elon Musk.

"Make no mistake," said American Postal Workers Union president Mark Dimondstein in a statement, "Louis DeJoy was forced out by a presidential administration that is intent on breaking up and selling off the public Postal Service. Reports from last month made clear that the White House has plans for a hostile takeover of the Postal Service."

As Common Dreamsreported in February, President Donald Trump was accused of orchestrating an "outrageous, unlawful attack" on the USPS by plotting to terminate all the members of the Board of Governors and putting the agency under his direct control.

"Elon Musk is not about efficiency—he's about picking your pocket." —Mark Dimondstein, APWU President

Any such attack, Dimondstein said Monday, "is part of the ongoing oligarchs' coup against the vital public services our members and other public servants provide the country. We know that privatized postal services will lead to higher postage prices, and lower service quality to the public. No matter who leads the USPS, it is—and must remain—the People's Postal Service."

With DeJoy's resignation, and until the Board appoints a replacement, Deputy Postmaster General Doug Tulino will now serve as the interim Postmaster General.

In comments Tuesday morning at the National Press Club, part of a roundtable discussion with postal worker union leaders, Dimondstein acknowledged the controversial legacy of DeJoy, but added, "say what you want, it turned out he was not a privatizer," as he reiterated his belief that DeJoy was forced out by Trump, at least in part, to make way for someone more aggressive in that direction.

"The privatizers are coming," Dimonstein warned. "They are coming for you and your constitutional right to postal services."

"This is really a struggle between Wall Street and Main Street," he continued. "That's the only way that we can understand why anyone would want to privatize. A few people would gain more wealth—a few quick dollars—but the real shareholders of the Postal Service, the people of the country, would lose out with higher prices, less service, and of course the workers with less wages, benefits, and rights, which, rather than build strong communities, weakens our communities."

Postal Union Leaders roundtable

In his statement Monday, Dimondstein said:

The law is clear: the Postal Service was created by Congress as an independent agency, designed to be free from shifting political winds and dedicated solely to serving the country. The law is also clear that the Board of Governors, and it alone, is empowered to hire and fire the Postmaster General. Any attempt by this Administration to seize power from the Board of Governors is unlawful and only makes clear their goal of breaking up and selling off the Postal Service to private corporations.

The APWU calls on the Board of Governors to stand its ground and take its responsibilities seriously. The Board should move as quickly as possible to hire as the next permanent Postmaster General, someone committed to the public service mission of the USPS, who respects the rights of hardworking postal workers, and who will not break up and sell off our public Postal Service.

As part of the organized efforts this week to defend the Postal Service, coordinated actions led by the APWU and the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC), which represents 295,00 active and retired postal workers, took place nationwide over recent days as unionized carriers and their allies demonstrated outside local post offices against plans to diminish services or moves toward privatization.

The union warns that the plan put in motion by DeJoy—who said worked hand-in-hand with Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, to implement changes—would, in addition to massive job losses at the Postal Service:

• Abolish the Postal Regulatory Commission, leaving no independent regulatory authority on pricing and service;
• Raise shipping costs, driving inflation higher for businesses and consumers; and
• Sharply reduce service to rural America, including over 50 million addresses where private carriers often do not deliver.

As Dimondstein, citing moves by a "salivating" Wells Fargo bank about the profit potential if parcel service was taken away from the public Postal Service, warned in his remarks on Tuesday, "Elon Musk is not about efficiency—he's about picking your pocket. Turn it over to private profit, laugh all the way to the bank, and the people of this country are left holding the bag."

NALC president Brian Renfroe said DeJoy's departure marks an opportunity for the Board to appoint a new leader—one who "must continue modernizing and investing in USPS' infrastructure while maintaining quality universal service funded by postage, not taxpayer dollars."

In addition, said Renfroe, the new Postmaster General "must fundamentally believe in the agency as a public service and be committed to guaranteeing the universal service Americans rely on," a clear knock against any privatization efforts.

"We're trying to alert the public, the people of the country, that our postal services are truly in danger," Dimondstein said at a rally in Washington, D.C. on Sunday. "This is not a one-off day, this is the beginning of an ongoing fight."